The Key To Sentience
by Atraxotax
Summary: What does it take to be sentient? The Xenomorphs can be very clever, but we still consider them to be animals. Is it their lack of remorse? Their ruthlessness? Probably both… But, there's one Xeno who is very different than the others. Through one-in-a-million circumstances, and a human girl, we'll learn just what makes this Xenomorph Runner so different.
1. Prologue

**The main reason why I wanted to write this story was because the existing stories of this nature are always either crappy, or just shallow. You'll find that a lot of the great Aliens vs Predator stories seem to follow a very weird pattern. The human characters are way too trusting, the Xenos have little to no personality, and the Predators are always either bastards or big softies. I intend to fix all of that. And I'm going to do it while following all of the pre-established cannon. And remember, I'm pretty much a living encyclopedia on the Xenomorph and Predator species. Luckily for you guys, I will be explaining these things, as well as answering questions about the story that you guys post. I'll also try and post links of images that certain characters would look like. I took some inspiration for this story from "The Guardian" by IluthraDanar, so don't be surprised if there are some references or inside jokes here and there. **

**In this chapter, we shall see how this whole buggering situation started, as well as getting an inside look at the thinking process of a Xenomorph.**

**Chapter 1:** Prolouge

Oddly enough, no one was really all that prepared for, or even _expected_ a Xenomorph infestation on the great gray planet of Guardian-625 [see what I did there?]. But, as it turns out, Aliens can be quite devious, and elusive.

They're like weeds, you know? Constantly popping up where they aren't wanted, and never going away. It all started with the report of a Xenomorph Egg in cargo bay 13.

The Massive colonies of GD-625 began to panic, after all a single Xeno Egg could end up tearing apart an entire planet in a little less than a week. But there's a reason GD-625 was named "Guardian". It served, and _still_ serves as a deployment point and home base for the Colonial Marines.

And the Corps wasn't about to let its' main base of operations fall to a few bugs! The plan _was_ to blow a large quarantined area (cargo bay 13 included) to hell, being the only _real _way to exterminate a potential Hive of Xenos.

But the Facehugger inside the rouge Xeno Egg had already found a Host. And by the time that they realized it, there was already a Chestburster running amuck. And then a full-grown Drone… and then it molted into a Queen…

so, basically; everyone was screwed.

It was several days before the USCM could get a bead on the Queen Xeno, which was no doubt hiding somewhere. By then, many had abandoned the planet, and many more had been Hived or killed.

The Xenomorph infestation had reached a class eight-danger level, and about 10 kilometers worth of city, sewer, corridor, and park was Xenomorph territory.

The USCMC considered just nuking the gods forsaken death-zone, but were reminded that half of the Colonial Marine arsenal was in the Xenos domain.

Plus, there could be survivors of the infestation in there… yeah, _that _would be a good excuse.

So, they did the next best thing; they quarantined the no-mans-land with a multitude of APCs', Sentry Guns, Dropships, SADAR Troopers, and Smartgunners.

No one in or out, until the CMC could find a way to get back their munitions without having to buy new ones. Of course, that isn't what they told people as to why they had the quarantine in place. If the public caught wind of the fact that their military was letting the Aliens live because they wanted their guns back… well, they wouldn't be too happy, would they.

No, "there could be survivors of the infestation" and "we are doing our best to get loved ones out of there alive" were _perfectly_ good explanations. And it was at least _half_ the truth.

When people learned that the Xeno situation was under control, they came flocking back to Guardian-625. Unfortunately no one told them that the Xenomorphs could _never_ be controlled.

"Unclouded by remorse and delusions of morality" they said. And just as one young woman thought… until recently that is.

But we'll get to that later.

* * *

><p><em>Day one of infestation<em>

Mr. Orinko, a short black haired man, was already on his way to the spaceport for a vacation when the P.S.A system announced the existence of a rouge Xeno Egg. _Huh, good time to leave I guess_, he thought, as he started jogging toward his destination. Through the endless dark gray and red corridors that make up the industrial district.

Considering the situation, he took a shortcut through the science labs. He _would_ get in trouble for doing so, but he doubted anyone would be concerned about _him_. And not _just_ because of the Xeno Egg.

He was operating as a drug dealer under the alias of Dr. Mathew Simons. As far as the USCM was concerned, he was just some poor doctor trying to start a business.

But, no. His alleged "vacation" was him just setting up a deal with some "associates" of his, on an abandoned mining compound an Guardian-625s' moon; Charge-3 [again, see what I did there?].

He wouldn't be coming back to GD-625 in a while… more than 3 months. But, as he turned a corner in a long, dim hallway, he couldn't help but feel like this "Xeno Egg" situation would come back to bite him.

I mean, he _was_ carrying a large duffel bag, slung over his shoulder, full of hundreds of bags of cocaine. And just as he's about to leave to a moon to deliver said contraband, whereby it'd be distributed amongst hundreds of people, and then a Xeno Egg just comes out of nowhere?

Orinko may not have been a very "moral" person, [no shit] but he still believed in Karma. He knew that _one day_, he would get what he deserved… of course it wasn't like he couldn't do anything to _postpone_ said comeuppances.

Which would have been ironic, had he known about his impending doom, not 3 minutes away.

As he neared one of the many doors to the Research laboratories, he noted immediately that it was pitch black inside. _Weird_, he thought, _these guys always keep the lights on_.

Of course, this should have occurred to him as a massive red flag. But, no. Despite the ample amount of logic he possessed, he _still_ walked forward and pushed the door open.

"Hey, anyone home?" he calls, he knew he probably shouldn't if he wanted to be discreet, but when no answer came he took it as good fortune. Idiot. He reached for a light switch, but grumbled when he found none. He continued to grumble and groan as he fumbled with his duffel bag, trying to find his flashlight. A metallic clatter made him jump and yelp, resulting in the flashlight (that he had _just_ found) rolling off into a dark corner. After flying out of his hand that is.

He froze, his eyebrows narrowing in suspicion and irritation. He swore to god, if this was some sort of prank, _somebody_ was going to go home with a broken jaw!

Nonetheless, he still briskly made his way to where he thought his flashlight had gone, and knelt down feeling around to find it for a bit. Looking a trifle frantic in his efforts.

Finally, he gained purchase in gripping the glass lens part of his tool. He flicked it on, not without some fumbling due to his shaky hands. Darkness can do that to you. Which is why the darkness is a Xenomorphs best friend.

With his flashlight on, he stood up and waved about the room, searching for whatever had made the noise.

A lot of lab equipment, which he promptly labeled as "science stuff" was still out in the open. And functioning. Beakers and flasks filled with odd translucent liquid, electronic weights with weird chunks of black/greenish minerals on them. Even a few hot plates were still turned on. Steaming after what looked to be a while, considering some of them gave off a slight glow of heat.

_Must have left in a hurry_, Orinko thought. _Again_ this should have been a giant fucking red flag to anyone with common sense! It was apparent that, though Aidan Orinko was smart, he wasn't very intuitive.

He didn't have the time to ponder his thought, as another loud clatter, this time sounding like glass breaking, interrupted his thoughts. Making him jump… again.

It came from under a desk with multiple papers on it. He shone the light under the table, pieces of shattered glass with a viscous liquid slowly pouring out. It looked like hand sanitizer, but obviously wasn't.

Okay, _now_ he was creeped out. But his fear was then overcome with curiosity, he walked up to the desk with the documents on it, and leaned forward to find out what had happened.

Does this guy have the attention span of a _fish_, or what?

Obviously no one told him the curiosity killed the cat… seriously, if he had just left when things started looking suspicious, he'd be here today.

His eyes widened at the picture of an unconscious Facehugger. In the image it was lying flat on a lab table, with two burn looking marks near its' spine.

He pulled his eyes away from the terror-inducing image and began to read a document titled "Specimen 41".

_"… __a strange egg shaped object was found in cargo bay 13 by a group of workers. We brought it back after neutralizing it with liquid nitrogen. The object has been confirmed as a _Xenomorph Egg_, or _Ovamorph_. There is no confirmation, however, as to_ how _it came to be in cargo bay 13 in the first place."_

He skipped a few lines. _"After finding and successfully incapacitating the escaped Facehugger, we are at a loss as to what to do about it. We don't believe it has implanted an embryo into anyone, it was far too 'energetic' for _that_ to have happened. We can't very well _kill_ the thing, on account of its' acidic blood. And obviously, we can't let it go. We'll probably get in trouble for bringing it further into the complex." _It ended there.

_Huh, they must have made a break for it when someone talked, _Orinko thought. How long have the scientists been gone? The Facehugger could have woken up. The little bastard could be any-

"AAARRRGGGGGH… mmmphf… mufff!"

Oh… well, speak of the devil.

* * *

><p><em>Day two of infestation.<em>

It was the second day since the P.S.A system had announced the existence of the… what was it, zenomuf egg? Mrs. Everline groaned as the P.S.A system clicked on for the umpteenth time today.

"Warning, a Xenomorph Egg has been reported from cargo bay 13, please remain calm. Stay indoors and block any and all vents, windows, air ducts etc-" it began, she'd heard it enough times to memorize it.

Yesterday was filled with a large amount of frantic yelling and running from all five rooms above, below, and to the sides of Mrs. Everlines' apartment. Not to mention countless people knocking on her door and offering a place with them as they evacuated.

She turned them all down, however. She didn't believe a word of these announcements, despite that they kept repeating every hour or so. Which wasn't very good for sleep.

_Oh please, probably just some scam to get people to buy tickets to the spaceports._ It wasn't the first time the USCM had made a fake warning just for money. They were always asking for funding anyway.

She went back to ironing her clothes in front of the television as the announcement finished up with "goodbye, and stay safe. Courtesy of the United States Colonial Marines".

She chuckled, shaking her head as she remembered how a phony warning of a rabies break out had everyone running for spaceports. And left all of them feeling stupid after it was confirmed years later that the announcement had been orchestrated.

It's happened before, and it's happening now.

Mrs. Everline didn't really believe that "Xenos" were real anyway. People only know about them because of their parents telling bedtime stories about the "big black demons" in order to get their children to behave.

And the reason that the whole thing started was because of a leaked report from the Colonial Marine database, which they had already said was a fake. Besides, if Xenomorphs _were_ real, they'd teach a high school class about it or something.

But they don't. So, no dice.

Most of the residential peoples had already evacuated, leaving Mrs. Everline the only person on her floor. The quiet was unsettling, usually there'd be _some_ sort of activity going on, the sounds leaking through the walls, on account of them being so thin.

Sometimes it was irritating late at night when a constant creaking could be heard [if you know what I mean]. But ultimately, it served to only make them all better neighbors.

So now that there were no people to make such noise, Mrs. Everline now felt alone for the first time in months.

As she folded a blue shirt, she paused when she heard a scratching from above. Looking up she gasped at the sight of cracks throughout the ceiling. Could it be rats? Erosion, maybe? Or is it-?

_No! Xenos are not real!,_ she thought. Yes, it probably _was_ rats. Yes, it has to be.

_Damn, that's going to cost a lot to repair, especially if they have to remove the entire ceiling for it, _she frowned.

She almost screamed when a metal clanging sounded from her bedroom. Intruders? Looters? Maybe even a serial killer… or worse? Being a middle aged woman when an half the colony is abandoned wasn't a good situation.

_Well, what kind of _idiot_ uses the god damned vents instead of the front door!?_

But she choked a startled cry when a vicious hiss filled the air. Seemingly from every direction. Fear and dread seemed to rob her of all reason and agency as loud thumping footsteps vibrated through the floor.

_No… it c-can't m-be… can it? N-no… no, no, no… I refuse to believe it!, _she protested in her head.

* * *

><p>The Worker was alone. Alone. No Queen to speak of. No Hive-mates either. No one. She was alone. A condition that <em>no<em> newly born should experience. Her immediate thoughts upon emerging from her Host were to ask the Queen for guidance. When she couldn't sense one, she probed for the presence of any Hive-mates. To ask where the Queen was, if any. No one there either. She became stressed and panicked, _no Queen. No family. Nothing! What will happen?! Where do I go?! What do I do!? How do I survive?!_, this went on for an hour. Until the many instincts of her ancestors showed her the way. _Yes. Find Hosts. Gather Hosts. Molt. Hide,_ she willingly entered a trance-like state in order to help get started. After the fifteenth Host had been found, subdued, and restrained, she'd gotten the hang of the pattern. Workers typically needed some sort of regime to follow. Guidelines. A pattern of living. Which was why Workers like herself depended on the Queen so heavily. She had estimated that she would need one more Host in order to get the Hive started. And the _Ancestral_ half of her psyche seemed to have no argument. _Yes, this one will do_, she now thought. Her lip had curled upwards in her kinds equivalent of a cringe when the prey had heard her from above. She knew it had heard something. The glow of it's heart seemed to intensify in its flashing. Its heartbeat became slightly audible through the ceiling of the small Hive that humans seem to always live in. When the Host calmed down and started moving its arms in its' usual robotic motions, she huffed through her dorsal tubes in relief and satisfaction. The Worker then quickly made her way to the entrance of the tunnels. As always an odd metal grating blocked it off. She saw no way to remove the blockage quietly and head butted the obstacle out onto the floor of her preys Hive. It was the only stealthy path to take, into a separate chamber than her prey was standing in. The Worker unknowingly emitted a low growl of anticipation as the Host yelped from the noise of the metal grating hitting the ground, the pungent scent of fear flowed into her dorsal tubes. Egging her on. Just _daring_ her to move forward. She took a moment to calm down a bit, as a familiar burning at the back of her head made itself known. She needed clear thoughts… for the moment. The Worker took the moment to crawl out of the child-sized tunnel, and stand up on the soft flooring humans seem to prefer. A hiss escaped her throat as a scent of anger irradiated from her prey. _Arrogant little morsel!_, she thought. The burning in the back of her skull tripled at the concept of danger. The _Ancestral_ part of her was now chomping at the bit to capture the human. She then took very deliberate steps toward the archway separating her from the Host. Resisting the burn _and_ instincts… for now. The pungent stench of fear yet again met her dorsal tubes. The glow of its' heart seemed to become even brighter than before, the rest of its body locking up in terror. _This_ is what sent the Worker over the edge, and what threw her self-control out of a hypothetical window.

_FEAR!_

Her instinct took over, urging her to go forward and perpetuate the species. And she was all too happy to oblige.

_HOST AFRAID! HOST MUST BE COMATOSE! BRING HOST TO HIVE! FUTURE HIVE! ENGAGE! ENGAGE! ENGAGE! _These thoughts, which weren't entirely her own repeated again and again, faster and faster. Practically _screaming_ for the young Worker to do what she was born for. The burning sensation seemed to become even more intense, and slightly painful, as adrenaline flowed freely in rivers inside of her veins. She ran through the small archway, entering the chamber her prey was in. Talons raised, tail lashing behind her. Her black lips folded backward as her jaws opened fully, her inner jaw extending slowly, snapping. A shrill shriek that dripped with power and eagerness erupted from within. Her legs and back tensed as she leaned backward, shoulders hunching. She was air born in an instant, leaping at the terrified Host. But, then everything seemed to stop as the Hosts eyes rolled back into its' head, and it collapsed to the ground. Leaving the Drone to fly straight over her prey, resulting her smacking head first into a wall. The wooden supports of the wall splintered and cracked as the Worker yanked her elongated skull from the plaster. Her adrenaline surge quickly died down as she shook her head, sending flakes of plaster and wood here and there. Well, _that _was odd. The previous Hosts at least put up _some _sort of fight. She dismissed the thought immediately; she didn't need to know why it happened. After all, her kind weren't ones to skip on an opportunity.

* * *

><p>As the Worker finished strapping the most recent Host to the wall of her future Hive, she stepped back to observe the soon to be Egg Chamber. About 42 Hosts were all either sleeping or screaming for help that wouldn't come. All of them restrained in Hive Resin. The Worker didn't think she would need much more to get her Hive started. <em>Her<em> Hive… it felt weird to think about. Soon she would be 20 ft tall, and commanding the Soldiers of her Nest. Again, it felt weird. She growled slightly at the thought that she would have to crouch over her Ovipositor when she molted into a Queen. It would most certainly be uncomfortable. But she couldn't do anything about _that _until a few Workers were born. She suddenly felt tired. Something that her kind rarely became. It must have meant that her body was beginning the molting process. And so she half mindedly walked to a corner of her future Hive. The ceiling was just about high enough for a Queen to stand up straight. It was the room that her Egg was found by the humans in. They'd called it "cargo bay 13" in that guttural, loud language of theirs. She had no idea what "cargo bay 13" could possibly mean, but nonetheless, it was now her home. She sat down in the metal corner, curling in on herself, arms and tail around her knees and shins. Her breathing steadied as she drifted willingly off to sleep.

Never _once_ did she ask herself, "do I want a Hive?". No, _that_ decision was made for her. The moment she realized that she was the only one of her kind on this planet. No alternative. No other conceivable option. No other choice.

* * *

><p>For the next 10 days, the USCM frantically fumbled about to set up the quarantine. Which certainly wasn't an easy task when you've got about 30 Xenomorph Warriors knocking on your door.<p>

The next 6 days were spent trying to stop the Xenos from expanding past the quarantined zone, many of the Xenos died in this. And thus reports of kidnappings from outside the Xenomorphs domain started to crop up everywhere.

The chances of getting snatched in the middle of the night to be Hived went up by about 20%. The Xenomorphs numbers grew into the hundreds, and put a massive strain on the CMC's defenses.

For the next four months, it was complete warfare between the two species. Neither opponent willing to back down, or buckle. This put Guardian-625 in a very precarious position.

This time period in GD-625's history would come to be known as the _Xeno Wars_. Very original, we know.

Thousands died, either in combat or by Chestburster. Some say you can still smell the odor of acid and ammunition. The smell of death.

The genocidal war continued, Alien vs. human. Xenomorph vs. Marine. Internicivus Raptus vs. Homo Sapien. The monsters vs. the best of the best.

And it was only a matter of time until a third species would get involved.

**The "glow" mentioned by the Xenomorph Drone is the electric energy that is given off by the human heart. Xenomorphs have a sixth sense called Electroreception, it is commonly found in sharks, electric eels, and catfish. The sense comes from these invisible pores in the skin that detect the electricity made when a living thing moves its muscles. Given the domed and elongated shape of a Xenomorphs head, it would stand to reason for the dome to be layered with these pores. And as for the Xeno being able to hear the humans heart beat, The shape of a Xenos head would be ideal for sound waves to pass through it, making a Xenos sense of hearing impeccable. A Xenomorph breaths and smells through its' dorsal tubes, it also releases pheromones through these tubes in order to distinguish itself to the rest of its Hive-mates. It also wouldn't be insane to think that Xenomorphs don't emit a low frequency infrasound with its head, for echolocation. After all without being able to see objects and obstacles in reference to the Electroreception, a Xenomorphs vision would just be a bunch of glowing shapes.**


	2. Chapter 1: Fate and Cynicism

**Here are some additional reasons as to why I wrote this tory, that I forgot to mention.**

**1. Xenomorphs are badasses.**

**2. Alien Resurrection wasn't a suitable sequel to Alien 3, and thus isn't considered cannon.**

**3. and I'm bored with my life.**

**By the way, this story is set about 3 years after the events of Alien 3 on Fiorina 161. Also, I forgot to mention a few things in last chapters ending note. **

**"Hived": to be restrained in Hive Resin and to have a Chestburster embryo inside you.**

**"Internicivus Raptus": Latin name for Xenomorphs, means "murderous-" or "deadly thief".**

**"Worker": what Xenomorphs would call Drones, if Xenomorphs spoke English.**

**"Xenomorph": Latin phrase made up of terms "Xeno"; meaning "strange", or "unknown". And "morph"; meaning "shape", or "form". It's basically a fancier way of saying "Alien".**

**Just to be clear, the ****_Ancestral_**** influences on the Xenomorph Drone in the last chapter, are really just extremely powerful instincts. Like how most humans have the urge to avoid heights. Except for Xenomorphs, it is much more difficult to resist these urges. Mostly due to the fact that Xenomorphs get pumped up with utterly absurd amounts of adrenaline from their highly advanced adrenal gland. Causing them to go into a drug/instinct induced rage every time someone so much as ****_mentions_**** the word "prey" or "Host".**

**Chapter 1B: Fate and Cynicism**

You know, when you're running for your life, you don't really care what direction you're going in. Especially when you've got about 5 Xenomorphs on your tail, Warriors no less.

Samantha skidded around another corner, fully aware that making turns would slow her down. And "slow" wasn't something you could afford to be. Not when Xenomorphs are involved.

As she sprinted down the blue/gray corridor, doors and silver room numbers flying by, she couldn't help but mentally berate herself for being careless. _Yeah, great job Sam. You've _really_ done it this time haven't you? HOW COULD YOU FORGET TO SEAL THE DAMNED AIRLOCK!?_

She _had_ been hiding in the airlock of a large marine tank. On account of the fact that the electric energy of the doors and tunnel block a Xenomorphs Electroreception.

It had been working fairly well, the Aliens echolocation couldn't go through the air tight doors, and the heavy smell of chlorine blocked her scent. She could pop in and out multiple times, root around for food, and _they'd_ never catch her.

Until she fucking forgot… how the hell does a person "forget" to unsure their own safety?!

She guessed this just proved how much just ONE mistake can completely fuck up your chances in this place. She heard a ***whoosh*** sound and jumped mid-bound to avoid taking a 2 foot blade of black exoskeleton through the shin.

The metal sparked and left a deep gash in the floor as the human kept running. 5 Xenos close behind. It was a good thing that Warrior Xenomorphs couldn't out run an award winning track runner, like herself. Otherwise, Samantha would already have a gaping hole in her forehead.

The Xenomorphs behind her snarled in frustration, as they continued pursuing her on all fours. One of them was crawling along the ceiling, another was on the wall to her left, and the other 3 were on the ground… last time she checked, that is.

This meant that she pretty much had to guess from where exactly a tail or claw was coming from. She cursed as Xeno tail blade whipped through the air above her head, inches away from scalping her.

She knew she couldn't keep running, Xenomorphs have proportionally large hearts, like birds. Allowing them to expend more energy over longer periods of time. They might not have been able to outrun her, but they _would_ outlast her.

She had to end this chase, fast. But where to go? It isn't like you could hide behind a bloody potted plant! No, you had to take multiple measures in a hell hole like this.

Find something with a lot of electricity running through it, cover your scent with something pungent, and make sure that your hide-out is sound proof.

That airlock in the marine tank had all of those.

Samantha had sometimes thought about writing a book on surviving a Xenomorph infestation. Should she survive this whole mess, but in order to do _that_, she had to survive _this_.

She kept running, going past a large window viewing the forest outside the complex. The five harbingers of death casting dark shadows behind her in the morning light.

She looked around for an exit or something to lose the Xenos. Nothing, just more locked doors and room numbers. She furrowed her brow, for the first time a two weeks she considered the possibility of dying.

But, a light at the end of the tunnel appeared, a door that was hanging ajar at the end of the blue/gray corridor she had been running in caught her eye. Yes!

Suddenly, the force of a Xenomorph head-butting her in the back sent her flying. Knocking the wind out of her. No! Fuck no! The situation only got worse when she hit the ground, mere feet away from her escape.

The floor immediately fell out from beneath her, crashing and groaning as she plummeted into a sudden darkness. Debris clanging loudly.

She hit the cold, metal ground with a loud thump. Grunting. She'd hit her head on the way down, a seemingly never-ending pain throbbing in her skull. Stars in her vision.

She could hear the loud thumping of her heart in her ears, slowing down. Debris, metal, and a few girders fell around her. A section of metal flooring fell on her chest, bringing a whole host of previously undetected pain from elsewhere.

Her skull throbbed. Her left shoulder was dislocated. Her right leg was searing in what felt like acid. And she was _pretty_ sure she felt blood spill down her scalp.

She looked up, catching a glimpse of a Xenomorph turning away from the giant hole she had apparently fallen through.

_Well… still a better way to go than by Chestburster_, she thought with a new feeling of acceptance over the pain in her body. At least _this_ way the Xenos wouldn't get the chance to kill her themselves.

She _had_ been a thorn in their side for a while.

As her vision began to fade, and the pain started rushing away like the tide of the ocean, she whispered with a small smile; "at least I won't be a baby Xenos first meal". She would've laughed if it weren't for the piece of metal crushing the air out of her lungs.

* * *

><p>The Soldier skidded to a halt as the floor of the structure fell downwards into a dark abyss, the human going with it. The entire floor near the open entry way had been drenched in a dried pool of acid. Apparently the human hadn't noticed the corpse of one of his Hive-mates nearby. He stood up and walked to the edge of the hole. The human was down there. The burn in the back of his head died down slightly as he realized the thing would probably bleed to death. Blood was pouring out of its head, heart beat extremely slow, crushed under a large square piece of metal. He sent a mental image of the dying human through the Hive-mind, to Mother. His Queen immediately sent back a feeling of irritation, and audibly called him and his group back to the Hive. Mother would have found great satisfaction in the Hiving of this human. And his inability to make his Queen happy, in turn made <em>him<em> annoyed. He turned and walked back the way they had come, barking a short hiss to his group (who had been surrounding the hole themselves) to follow him. He knew that a certain Hive-mate, a Scout, he had come to know well, would have to come to this area and patrol it for the next half of the day, or so. To confirm that the human was, indeed, dead. While he and his group would go back to the Hive to eat and rest, this Scout would be cleaning up his mess. He felt bad about that, and angry at his own incompetence.

* * *

><p>Ryus had been ordered to search through an area for the corpse of a human. And if he didn't find it, he'd have to find out where said human went.<p>

That was what constituted about half of the average Scouts life.

Although, Ryus wasn't really "normal". Any Scout would take up reconnaissance, and run "search and destroy" tasks for the Hive. Usually about 2-3 of these situations would pop up everyday, giving Scouts like him a lot of spare time.

Usually they'd either eat or sleep during this, even _if_ they weren't tired or hungry. But Ryus was different, very different. His Hive-mates hadn't even given him a second glance to indicate any possibility of knowing, but his Queen had known almost immediately.

His abnormality was seen as an advantage, and thus Ryus was given more free rein and trust, as well as fewer responsibilities. And if his "hobby" helped the Hive, then all the better.

However, today was one of those days when he had to carry out at least one task for his Queen.

And now, Ryus was trotting through a darkened hallway. The lack of light and electricity told him that this entire floor had a power cut. Apparently, a human female had taken a nasty drop, and fell from a corridor above him, and onto this floor.

His Queen, as well as a Soldier that he knew well, wanted confirmation that the human was dead. What was interesting about this; was that the human in question had been quite a troublesome factor for the Hives existence.

When asked how exactly this human was troublesome, his Queen told him that this human had avoided detection and capture ever since the Hive had started.

How exactly this was "troublesome", Ryus didn't know. If the human was simply staying hidden, avoiding the Hive and its members, what trouble could she be?

When Ryus rose this point, the Hive-mates that were present stared at him. If they were human they would have "spaced out" for a second, blinked a few times, and then shook their heads, shaking off the point.

To _them_ the notion of an un-captured Host NOT being a grievance was incomprehensible. To them, the safety and progression of the Hive was both paramount and mandatory.

But, as mentioned before, Ryus was different. More on that later.

He tilted his head to the right a left, still nothing. He had been trotting through this floors hallways for about 20 minutes, and he still had half of the place to go. It was an underground storage facility where the humans placed all of their surplus supplies.

He had observed enough to know that the entire planet was a "colony", and a particularly important colony at that. It apparently needed to have supplies like, food, water, and miscellaneous items shipped to it from other worlds.

Why such an important planet couldn't make its _own_ supplies, Ryus didn't know. Maybe they were just lazy. Yeah… probably.

Because of the many items chronic and lengthy necessity, the humans had dropped the temperature down to freezing, and shut off the power to the entire floor.

If the human female _did_ die, then her corpse would be ice cold by the time Ryus found it. Thus, he'd go without a meal. _Of all the places, the human had to die _here, he thought. _Just fucking great_.

He opened his maw and breathed in, literally tasting the air, trying to find the scent of "human". Because he and his breed of Scouts lacked dorsal tubes, he had to breath and smell strictly through his mouth. Meaning that he had a more advanced way of smelling, similar to a snake. It also meant that he had to have his teeth bared constantly in order to not have to hold his breath all the time.

Although, he tried to at least make it _look_ like his mouth was closed.

As, the ice cold air flowed into his lungs, he stopped moving, catching the scent of something… out of place. _That aquatic tank?_, he thought. The pungent smell of fish and what humans call "chlorine" caught his attention.

_Hmmm… Mother _did_ say that the human female had been hiding in a large box full of water… could a fish tank be what she was talking about?_, he asked himself. He then put two and two together, and broke into a sprint toward the source.

The dark corridors would have been impossible for a human to traverse in, but when you've got a highly advanced form of echolocation, it all just looks black with a white outline for every object. Well... at least he _thought_ the color was white.

He continued running, taking a left turn, constantly swiveling his head on its axis, probing for the human. If she was alive, he'd see the electric energy of her heart, diaphragm, and lungs pulsing. If the human was dead, he would find the body through smell.

He swung his skull to the left for the last time, a few flashing lines of blue (he thought it was blue) light made him skid to a halt. The human _was_ alive. Heart rate almost painfully slow, diaphragm struggling to breath, the sound of labored breathing passed through Ryus's head, she was barely hanging, on.

The _Ancestral_ portion of his psyche became eager, but Ryus suppressed the rising burn in the back of his head. _No, when I kill the human, I _have_ to remember every second_, he thought to himself in determination.

One of the things about "giving in" to the urge and the burn, is that it negatively effects your memory of the time period you spend in the trance.

He prided himself on his advanced self-control. And thus, kept his cool every time he had to fight or kill… forcing him to remember those moments in excruciating detail.

A constant reminder. A deliberately made ghost to haunt him. The perfect monument to what he hated the most about his existence. To what he _couldn't_ control.

But, again, more on that later.

He sucked in a quick breath, calming down. The human was in the fifth room down the hall, on the left. The female must have been in a great deal of pain. The sound of groaning suddenly passed through his skull.

He trotted toward the small wooden door that stood in the way of those bright blue lines that represented the electricity in the humans muscles. Each door was about 5 meters apart from one another.

He rose to stand on his hind legs and reached for the door handle. Any of his Hive-mates would have knocked the thing off of its' hinges, but Ryus had taken to opening doors slowly and quietly.

His clawed hand closed around the ice cold, copper handle. Jumping slightly, at the sound of the human coughing loudly. He waited until she stopped. He ever so gently pushed downward… and growled in agitation when the damn thing snapped straight off with a metallic ***chink***.

_Crap_, he thought, raising the small piece of metal up to his dome. Apparently he _would_ have to knock the fucking thing off of its' hinges. _Damn this frigid temperature_, he thought, wondering why the human couldn't have fallen into a sauna. Hissing in distaste, he tossed the broken handle over his shoulder.

_Or maybe…_ he wondered, coming up with an idea. He brought his tail under his right arm and pressed the tip against the wood gently. Just under where the door handle had been.

* * *

><p>Samantha's eyes opened quickly. Immediately greeted by the low, bluish light of the afternoon that flowed through the hole in the ceiling of the room she was in. <em>Oh god, please tell me I didn't survive that<em>, she begged in her head.

She looked down as a bitter cold tortured her lungs, making her cough. She was still pinned under a large slab of metal and a few girders. Her injuries didn't feel as bad anymore, she reached around to touch the back of her head. Apparently the wound had sealed up before any major blood loss could occur.

Although she still felt _way too_ fucking dizzy from the blood loss that _had_ occurred. She grabbed a lock of her normally brown hair, and pulled it around so she could see it. Stained and matted with crimson. She cringed in disgust and flicked the lock out of her sight. It was still hard to breath, and her leg was still in a sizable amount of pain. But other than that, she was quite lucky.

_Just _fucking_ wonderful_, she thought, frowning. The _one_ time that she actually wanted-no _needed_ to die, and her stupid luck gets in the way. She guessed it must have been her ancestors' Irish descent.

She didn't know how long she'd been unconscious, and she wasn't sure she _wanted_ to know. She tried looking around, but it was too dark to see anything beyond the spotlight that illuminated where she was, on account of the hole.

It would have been all upside down to her anyway, seeing as though she was lying on her back and couldn't sit up… or move _at all_ really. She erupted into a loud coughing fit from the biting cold in her throat. Damn… she probably had a cold now, too.

Samantha either needed to find a way to kill herself, or get moving, fast. The Xenomorphs would probably find her easily like this. And they didn't exactly need her in "top condition" to have her Hived.

That is… if they haven't _already_ found her.

She groaned with a new wave of dizziness, and fatigue. Maybe she should just go to sleep… yeah… yeah, a nap sounded good at the moment.

Her senses shot straight up in alarm, however, when she heard an almost pained creak. She oriented her head backward to find darkness.

***CRACK!***

Fear strangled her throat as a small hiss filled the air.

"Fuck…" she whispered.

Well… what else is there to say?... fuck…

* * *

><p>Ryus felt his tail snap straight through the 5-inch wood. <em>Fuck… I hope she didn't hear that<em>, he thought. He looked up to hear the human whisper "fuck", and see that her heart rate had elevated.

_Fucking hell, why did she have to hear that?_, he asked himself. Seeing no point in taking a subtle approach, he yanked his tail out of the door and stepped back a bit. The door exploded into a shower of splinters and stakes as Ryus charged straight through the thing. Head down, arm held in front of his chest.

Ignoring the humans gasp for the moment, he chirped a few infrasound calls, each sound wave spreading across the room, touching every nook and cranny. Being that the door was sound proof.

As the sound waves bounced back to their source, Ryus's skull, his mind immediately measured how much and in what way the sounds had changed. Creating an image for him to see.

His kind had photographic memory, allowing them to be able to see the images only once, and still be able to navigate. It also helped in making his species such fast earners.

The room was quite large, filled in every corner with small-large wooden crates, no doubt with labels that Ryus couldn't read. Because he couldn't really discern color.

Other than the outlines of objects and the electric energies that living things give off, that is.

Upon receiving the mental image of the room, he then understood why the human female was in such pain that he had sensed. She was almost crushed by multiple sections of metal flooring and girders, a lot of them seemed to have acid stains.

Then what he noticed about the human next surprised him, she was calmly staring at him… or in his general direction, seeing as how he was still in the shadows.

He chirped a few more infrasound calls, slightly stronger now, and was able to recreate a mental image in his head about what had happened here. Low light was pouring in from the hole in the ceiling above the human, creating a sort of spotlight on her.

He then returned the cold stare she was giving him, as he took loud steps toward her, trying to scare her. Any of his Hive-mates would have already impaled the human by now, but Ryus always gave his victims at least the respect of _seeing_ him first.

The scent of the girls (seeing as how she couldn't be much older than 20) fear was almost eye watering… if he _had_ eyes. But, she surprisingly kept her cool, not freaking out as he got closer.

_Damn_, he thought,_ tough girl_. I mean, she _had_ just survived a near death experience, and he was about to kill her, yet she managed to compose herself.

That burning came back again. _No! Fuck off! I _have_ to remember this!_, he thought to himself, and his instincts, even though his instincts weren't really intelligent… or even alive for that matter.

In truth, he didn't _enjoy_ remembering these kinds of things, in fact he was probably the only one of his kind that even cared. But he felt he had an obligation to remember.

A responsibility.

Again, more on that later.

He swung his tail over his shoulder, and gently rested the tip of the spear on the females forehead… resisting the urge to mutilate the human, as his instincts kept begging him to do.

The human squirmed a little as the bronze exoskeleton of his blade drew a drop of blood, on account of it being insanely sharp. But she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Causing Ryus to respect this human even more.

He barked a short hiss at her, hoping the silent message got through.

"Sayonara, human".

**So... what do you think of our two main characters? I know you're probably asking how and why Ryus is so different, and seemingly smarter. All in due time, my children. All in due time. Expect an explanation (and a pretty damn good one) to come around chapter 4, 5, or 6... somewhere around there.**

**The echolocation that is described in Ryus's assessment of the storage room, is most likely how Xenomorphs navigate. Plus, the domed parts of their skulls doubles as an eye spot, as well as being an Electroreception satellite.**

**"Eye spot": a primitive version of an eye that can't detect color, but only light and dark. It would make sense for Xenomorphs to have this, to be able to tell light from darkness in order to hide properly.**

**"Scout": What Xenomorphs would call Runners, if they spoke English.**

**"Soldier": What Xenomorphs would call Warriors, if they spoke English.**


	3. Chapter 2: Complications

**Hey, you know the ,so called, "inner jaws" that Xenomorphs have? The thing tha they use to "Head Bite" people? Well, I've come up with an _actual name_ for them! I've decided to call it... the "Piston Jaw", because they shoot out like pistons. I _would _have called it a "Skull Hole Puncher", but that would have been a mouthful to say in conversation.**

Chapter 2

Samantha had been petrified in fear. No, paralyzed. No… well, yeah, paralyzed. Her fear had been _so_ cold, and _so_ choking, that she didn't even notice that this Xenomorph looked different.

As the loud footsteps of the Xenos clawed feet came closer, the ambient cold temperature kept prodding at her lungs painfully. Making her want to cough. As with most of her voluntary and involuntary impulses at the moment, the raking grip of fear stopped her from doing so.

She almost couldn't suppress a yelp when the Xenos tail blade swung over its shoulder and touched her forehead, causing her to squirm underneath it.

She realized that she was going to die, despite that she already _knew_ she would as soon as she heard that tell-tale "crack".

But now that it was confirmed that the Xeno planned on killing her _here_ and _now_, she then couldn't help but sigh and close her eyes in relief. _Good, it's not planning on having me Hived_, she thought with no small amount of peace flooding her system.

With fear no longer clouding her brain, she began breathing deeply, ready to welcome the hand of the Grim Reaper. She felt a warm liquid drip down into her hair, probably blood, but she was too busy getting ready to die, to care about _that_ at the moment.

* * *

><p>Ryus was about to kill the human. Simple. Just dive his tail downwards, and watch the life and blood ebb away. As usual. Listen to the crack of the humans skull as his blade punctures through her brain matter. Right.<p>

His life probably would have been _so_ much simpler had this gone to plan. But, he would also realize that his life would have also been a lot more… shallow… had he killed the human female that was saying her prayers underneath his tail blade.

But… fate decided, he didn't know when, to make _this time_… a little bit different. Something that Ryus would both scorn, and inwardly smile at later on.

He took a deep breathe, resisting the urge to lose control to the _Ancestral_, and to his own instincts.

He stared at the human girl who had not shown fear, who had kept her cool in the face of her mortality.

He urged his tail to raise up a bit.

The humans eyes opened, looking at the blade, before closing again.

And he brought his tail down with all his strength and speed-

_Wait…_,he thought, _why aren't I moving?_ His tail hadn't smashed through the humans skull yet.

He tried again, but something… somethi-

_Am I paralyzed or something?_, he asked himself, worriedly. Ryus tested this by removing his tail from its hovering position. Okay, no problem. He then tested this a bit further by attempting to step back. Again, no problem.

Ryus launched his tail under his arm and toward the humans skull. But… it stopped within a few inches of her head. Which was odd, because he could have easily reached her from this distance. 4 feet to be exact.

_What _is_ this?_, he thou-

The most intense pain shot through his spine so fast, he fell backward with a surprised screech, falling on his back. Shrieking. A suffocating pain pushed the confines of his skull, as the lance of fire in his back seems to double its efforts to torture him. Causing him to hiss.

_WHAT THE FUCK!?_ He struggled to get back to his feet, still dealing with what felt like hot knives being plunged into his spinal cord.

Okay, he was actually becoming quite concerned now. Living things don't just "experience pain" for no reason!

As soon as he staggered onto shaky legs, he was knocked to all fours as a new wave of agony smashed into him. Violently. _STOP DAMMIT… ARGH! WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH ME!?_

His head suddenly felt like it was being split in two… in more ways than one. He started madly scratching at his head, trying to get the pain to fuck off!

He was hissing and growling in staccato bursts, shrieking in tortured agony.

Unbeknownst to him, he started erratically convulsing on the floor.

_Am I going to die?_, he questioned mentally.

And then…

Then suddenly i- it wasn't just him and- and his _Ancestral_ instincts anymore. H-he could feel his mind stretch, as his s-sss-psyche sp-split from two halves, into three th-thirds. He… he could feel a _second_ influence. It made him feel nauseous.

And just like that, the pain fell away in relieving sheets. Letting him think straight for a moment.

He got up onto all fours, crouched low to the ground, seeing as though he had been lying on his stomach.

_What the hell!?_, he thought, angrily.

Breathing in seethed and strained gasps, he searched his mind, seeing if his _Ancestral_ instincts had any idea what had happened. And to… see if he could sense that "second presence" he had felt a moment ago.

There was _him_, of course, his personality, his memories; Ryus. Then there were the _Ancestral Instincts_ that are present in all his kind. And then there was… something else. Something… softer; innocent… simpler.

And strangely it seemed to have a larger presence in his head than that of the _Ancestral_!

Ryus didn't know what to do, this was unheard of. Wait, was it? He mentally looked to the _Ancestral_, it was silent. No… this has never happened before. _That… this… I don't… what the hell?_, he thought, dumbly.

He didn't dare to move; worried that he may have another episode. Wandering if anything had happened, he emitted multiple infrasound chirps.

As the mental images came back to his head, he couldn't but look down. Large pieces of wood and a few splinters. He had apparently fallen on top of a crate, destroying it. Luckily there was nothing inside.

And even_ more_ luckily, his skin was "splinter-proof".

Wanting to see a constant visage of his environment, he began releasing a hyperactive torrent of infrasound waves. To a human, it would have looked as if he was breathing very deep, drawn out breathes.

The constant, hyperactive waves of infrasound barraged Ryus's mind with about a thousand images a second. While he still kept up the sound waves.

Doing this was almost no trouble, neither on his mind, nor his heart.

This "hyperactive sonar" was a technique that Ryus had taught himself, thus he is the only of his kind that has this ability.

Putting his talent to use, his mind automatically linked up the images received into a constant stream. Giving him "human-ish" perception.

The (supposedly) white outlines that made up the world around him brightened slightly, and steadily flashed with the incoming images of infrasound. He slowly oriented his head in the direction of the human.

She was staring at him as though he had grown a second head.

_Well_, he thought, grumbling in his head,_ I might as _well_ have_. The newly discovered "second influence" took that moment to… to well up with joy at the sight of the human? Until this point this… this _Unknown_ had been silent.

The sudden happiness pulsing from this _Unknown_ could only be described as… reuniting with a long lost friend…

WHICH WAS ABSOLUTELY, FUCKING INSANE! Ryus had never seen this human before in his life! And he'd only been alive for four months, so he'd know! And besides… he never forgot a face… he'd slaughtered enough humans to remember every one of their faces…

And their screams.

He shook his head, growling slightly. Pushing the haunting sounds away from his priorities.

The human female, who had calmed down considerably due to her curiosity, then whimpered a bit in fear. Probably because of his growl.

He sat down on his hind legs, hunched over a bit, as the _Unknown_… wait…what!? After wavering with regret at the girls fear it… pulsed with SUBMISSION!?

Okay, it was _one thing_ to think of a human as a friend, but to be submissive to one!? That was borderline _sacrilege_! What was this _Unknown _thinking!? If _anything _the female should be submissive to _him_! Wait- why was Ryus even having this argument with himself!?

_Because this _Unknown_ is being so… _stupid!, Ryus thought. What was the deal with this thing? Its as if it isn't even… of his own kind!

Ryus suddenly wanted nothing more than to kill the girl! Like he _should_ do! The sooner he could leave the human there as a _corpse_, the sooner he could head back to the Hive and get something to eat!

The _Unknown _seemed to mentally fidget in protest at the notion of the human dying. _Oh, shut the _fuck_ up! What's so bloody special about her!? She's just a lousy human!_, Ryus thought to himself as he tilted his head at the ground and snarled. As if the _Unknown_ was sitting next to him.

Predictably, the _Unknown_ gave no kind of communicable response, just kept pulsing in defensiveness of the human. It _was_ a part of his subconscious, after all. Maybe… Ryus grabbed his head and shook it, growling/warbling in frustration in a very "human" gesture. All of this mental buggery was giving him a headache.

Ryus probably wouldn't have minded the addition of a second instinctual influence on him. He might have been intrigued by it. The _Ancestral_ had never been a problem, so what would be this _Unknown_ in comparison? Except for the fact that this _UNKNOWN _WAS A COMPLETE FUCKING TOOL! Friendship, submissiveness, and protective of a human!? What kind of _idiot_ would you have to be!?

Ryus pushed up from his sitting position and stood on his hind legs, snarling. His tail lashed a bit, and his jaws started opening. His opinion of this _Unknown_ was not a good one. Contempt, and disgust made both him _and _the _Ancestral_ angry!

He looked back at the human, her heartbeat was flashing almost teasingly as a new wave of terror seemed to pass over her. She could tell that Ryus was angry. His fists actually clenched, he was _really_ tempted to just hand over his self control to the _Ancestral_. This human _was_ troublesome, he didn't think she _needed_ to be remembered as vividly as usual.

Not with the trouble her execution was turning out to be.

He took a hostile step forward, crushing a stake of wood under his clawed foot. He was openly growling now, aggression rising.

But… then he reminded himself that, nevertheless, she was _still_ a thinking, feeling being. And thus, _deserved_ to be remembered be at least _someone_.

Well… to _her_ it would be some_thing_.

His lips closed, hiding his teeth. His tail began swishing passively off to the side. And his hands relaxed themselves.

With control restored, he took another step forward, not nearly as aggressive this time. He was now standing over her.

He was about to raise his arm and lop the girls head off, _Ancestral_ becoming exited, _Unknown_ protesting even more. However… Ryus then remembered how well it had worked out the _last _time he had tried killing her. Not 5 minutes ago.

He then became concerned whether or not he would have another seizure-esque "episode" if he attempted to end the humans life.

Unwilling to go through _that_ again, he backed away, stopping next to the doorway. Besides… he doubted that the _Unknown_ would appreciate it if he somehow _did_ kill the human. And seeing as how this "arrangement" would last for a while, he didn't want the fuckin' thing to go berserk so early into their "relationship".

Who _knows_ what it could do… considering it seemed to have a profound affect on him before.

Ryus wondered what the human must be thinking.

* * *

><p>Samantha was <em>really<em> confused now. The Xeno seemed to have some sort of seizure, and destroyed a wooden crate in the process. She had to look away as the splinters went flying. She then stared at it for what seemed like hours before it ceased convulsing.

When it growled, she couldn't help but whine a little. Its seemingly "calm" demeanor before could be slipping away. Was it rethinking its decision about killing her, or having her Hived?

The creature then sat down, ignoring her for a while, seemingly in deep thought. This had _never_ happened before. Was something wrong with it? Or… could she be hallucinating?

She shook her head. _No, if I was hallucinating, this would have to be the most vivid "tripping" session_ ever, she resolved. Although… she _did_ receive a knock to the head…

The Xenomorph snarled at something she couldn't see, then stood up and advanced on her angrily. Her eyes widened in terror. Oh, no.

Then the Xeno calmed down, its aggression receding.

_Is this thing bi-polar or something!? Could it just make up its fucking mind already!?_, she thought irritably. The creature did _the last_ thing she expected, it backed away… calling for one of its friends? Not going to kill her? Why her?

She started thinking that it would just leave her alone.

***BANG*** ***BANG***.

***BANG*** ***BANG***

***Gulp***.

* * *

><p>Ryus had no idea what to do. The <em>Ancestral<em> was practically _nagging_ him o kill the human. And the _Unknown_ seemed relieved yet wary at Ryus backing away from the female.

If he couldn't kill the human without go all "exorcist" (as he'd heard a human describe), then what was he going to do?

How was he going to explain this to Mother? What? He couldn't kill the human female because of a seizure, and a new presence in his head!? Even to Mother, that would sound insane!

But then, a saving grace. The thundering footsteps of one of his Hive-mates… a Soldier, by the sound of it.

Huh… maybe he wouldn't have to come up with an excuse afterall…

**Once again, I have to clarify, the _Ancestral _is simply collection of instincts built up by the the ancestors of Xenomorphs. NONE OF THE XENOMORPHS HAVE SPLIT PERSONALITY SYNDROME! The same goes for the _Unknown_, to Ryus, both of these things would be a negligible factor.**

**The "hyperactive sonar" described by Ryus's experiences will serve as an explanation for Ryus always "looking" in different directions.**


	4. Chapter 3: Crossing the Rubicon

**To "Cross the Rubicon", essentially means to cross the point of no return. It was taken from an ancient Roman battle, look it up.**

Chapter 3: (Unwillingly) Crossing the Rubicon

The sound of the Soldiers' thundering footsteps was music to Ryus's skull. Ryus could see the pulsing blue of his Hive-mates' powerful heart and diaphragm, as well as the solid streaks of the Soldiers legs, arms, and tail as he ran to Ryus's location. The approaching Soldier was jogging upright instead of sprinting on all fours, as it would normally do. Probably because of the human girl.

Speaking of, said human was now squirming beneath the weight of the debris she was trapped under. She whimpered slightly as the intensity of her fear tripled. He could tell she was becoming desperate.

Ryus lowered himself to his default position on all fours, upon feeling his hind legs tremble under the weight of holding him upright. His clawed hands had become slightly thicker than that of his Hive-mates, on account of him constantly walking on them. Ryus stared at the incoming Soldier through the walls, he tasted the smell of his Hive-mate's alarmed state through his bared teeth.

The Soldier bounded through the open doorway, instantly orienting his head in Ryus's direction and hissing quietly. Ryus smelled the pheromones of concern and alarm exuding from the Soldiers dorsal tubes, a minute amount of oozing liquid dripping from the Soldiers breathing apparatus.

As the newly arrived Soldier turned fully to face Ryus and walked to within a few feet of him, the human girl squirmed even more. Vainly, as the Soldier ignored the humans' presence for the moment.

Being that Ryus was the nearest Scout, all other breeds of his kind would be under every obligation to "report" to him, seeing as though his telepathic ability was more powerful than theirs in order for him to communicate with the Queen from longer distances, and for longer periods of time… and more frequently. Scouts _were_ "scouts" after all, and would have needed to be able to relay _any_ information they find to Mother regularly.

A human might have seen this as Ryus being of a "higher rank", but that simply wasn't the case. All of his kind were equally devoted and important to the Hive's success… well, most of them. Some just happen to have a higher amount of responsibilities. It wasn't like any of Ryus's Hive-mates would have bothered to understand the concept of "ranking", anyway.

The Soldier stood over Ryus (as Ryus himself leaned back to sit on his hind legs) and lowered his carved head to inform Ryus of… well, "whatever", really. It was then that Ryus noticed that this Soldier was relatively young, the carvings on his skull being smooth looking.

[Just imagine this Soldier as looking like the "Warrior" skin from AVP (2010), thus placing this Xenomorph at being less than a month old.]

This placed the Soldier at being only 2 inches bigger than Ryus, about 7 feet tall upright. Had the Soldier been much older, he would have molted about 12 times, until he stood at 8ft. After four months a Soldier would stop molting and end up with a ridged/carved skull pattern that reminded Ryus of the tracks of a motorcycle.

Ryus then felt his skull buzz in a familiar way as the Soldier transmitted its memories of… apparently, why he was here. Feeling his "vision" fading into a faded "recording".

According to what Ryus "half-saw" from the memories of what this Soldier had been doing, he had apparently been walking a regular patrol around the human complex when he had noticed Ryus's convulsing, and had immediately gone to sort of "check on him".

Though, Ryus doubted this Soldier knew that what had been happening to Ryus was a seizure.

Ryus shook his head as the memories of the Soldier got to the point of him approaching Ryus.

Ryus looked back up at his young Hive-mate, seeing the Soldier shake his head and look back to Ryus like he had. Ryus felt a concerned feeling pulse from the Soldiers' mind to his.

_Oh, he wants to know what happened… uh_, Ryus thought.

_"Um, I don't really want to talk about it, mate. Maybe I'll tell you later"_, Ryus spoke mentally in response.

Though Ryus knew that this Soldier didn't know a lick of English, he also knew that the guy _would_ be able to sense the dismissive feeling that pulsed from within Ryus's brain.

Ryus sensed what felt… almost like curiosity come from the Soldiers head, but, the feeling quickly died away as the Soldier immediately dismissed the thought. _Of course he is_, Ryus thought a bit tiredly. The Soldiers reaction to his use of English was completely predictable.

The young Soldier then turned to the human girl, seemingly noticing her for the first time and almost instantly hissed and growled, baring his teeth in anger. Ryus could almost taste the scent of adrenaline, testosterone, and anger wave out of the Soldiers dorsal tubes.

He would have rolled his eyes.

_Probably gonna go strike down the human female in complete and utter mindlessness and fury_, Ryus thought lazily, as if unenthusiastically reciting something from a paper.

The young Soldier quivered in barely hidden rage, body shaking as his tail lashed, growling at the sight of the INJURED and HARMLESS human girl.

Ryus would have rolled his eyes again at the young Soldiers careless transition into a rage and adrenaline induced trance.

The Soldier took hostile steps toward the girl, causing her to instantly gape in terror, as all reason (however small it may have been) left his mind and turned him into nothing more or less than a killing machine whose only impulse is to kill anything and everything of a different species.

If Ryus were human, he'd have spat in distaste at the thought.

Ryus calmly watched in a sitting position as his Hive-mate raised his arm, fingers stiff, ready to impale the humans skull with his claws. At this, the girl lost consciousness from… stress? Fear? Whatever.

The young Soldier pulled his right arm back, preparing to spear straight through the girls head with the speed and accuracy of an angry god.

The _Ancestral_ seemed to jump in excitement, the _Unknown_ protesting with the ferocity of a cornered animal, Ryus biting back both influences. Maintaining just enough control.

Then, all of a sudden… Ryus's lip twitched in anger… he-he could feel his so well maintained self-control slip away at an alarming rate. He clutched his skull with his hands in sudden panic. Something was… taking over. His efforts to keep his brain from going apeshit were in vain.

"No" was all Ryus managed to think before his psyche was forced to "take the back seat", so to speak. Something had managed to take control of his body. It felt similar to going into the instinct driven trance that the Soldier was in, but… more intense.

And there wasn't much doubt as to "what" was shoving him aside to "take the wheel".

(RYUS ISN'T HERE ANYMORE!)

The best way to describe the experience would be as seeing through your eyes but having little to no control over your actions.

Ryus watched in furious astonishment as "he" suddenly leaped forward with more speed than he thought possible. Ryus watched as his clawed hands reached out and violently gripped the Soldiers shoulder ridges. "Ryus" then yanked the young Soldier down and away from the unconscious human female with a snarl, just as the Soldier's arm was about to decimate the humans skull.

The Soldier, Ryus's Hive-mate, looked back at Ryus over his shoulder in surprise… just as Ryus's Piston Jaw smashed through the side of the Soldiers head.

Killing instantly.

A spray of acidic blood flying out of the fatal wound and dissolving the side of a wooden crate.

Ryus watched in horror from the "backseat" of his mind, as he saw the limp corpse of his dead Hive-mate be tossed off to the side like garbage.

Whatever had seized control of him fell away as quickly as it had come. And Ryus was almost too stunned to take back the "wheel".

Taking back the control that was rightfully his, and noticed how his body felt comparatively warm compared to how cold it had felt within the confines of his mind.

He was grateful for that.

At first, Ryus didn't move. Refusing to believe what he had so clearly witnessed.

_No… that wasn't… this had _better_ be a dream!_, Ryus begged to himself.

He slowly oriented his head in to the corpse of the Soldier he… yes, that _he_ had killed.

The body lay motionlessly, acidic blood streaming out of where Ryus had Head-bitten the poor bastard, to drip soundless to floor from the tip of the Soldiers chin, immediately sizzling where it landed. Ryus absentmindedly walked to stand over the corpse of his Hive-mate. Hunching… and not just because it was his natural posture.

Ryus stared at the body, baring his teeth to let out a breathe he realized he had been holding in. He breathed in a strained inhale and held his breathe once more, concealing his teeth. The _Ancestral_ had become deathly silent, seemingly as stunned as Ryus, and the _Unknown_ would have been smiling in grim satisfaction.

He felt like telling the _Unknown_ to shut it. But that wouldn't have helped him.

He continued staring blankly at the decomposing corpse.

_Bugger_, Ryus finally thought, a bit dumbly, as his shoulders seemed to slump.

_I've just committed semi-fratricide_, he thought, just as dumbly.

_WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME!?_, he wailed in his head. He staggered a few steps backward in shock, clutching and shaking his head in disbelief, as the full gravity of the situation crashed down on him. He began to breathe erratically through gritted teeth. Seething. He fell backward onto his back and sat up, putting a painful weight on where his tail met his spinal cord. He didn't notice, _or_ bother to get up.

He let out a long, loud screeching wail up to the ceiling in anguish, his claws digging into his head. Drawing yellow-green blood, dripping to the floor and sizzling.

He then let go of his head and got back on to all fours. He started pacing in circles around the unconscious human female that he didn't seem to acknowledge the existence of.

His body hung low to the ground, limbs sprawled out to the side, back and tail moving in a lizard-like fashion. As if preparing to leap to the side to evade something.

Breathing in gasping snarls, drool dripping from his partially opened jaws from panic and elevated heart rate.

_WHY?! WHY DID I KILL HIM?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!_, he half whined within his thoughts.

_What could have possibly possessed me to do that?!_, he questioned. Even though he hadn't really been in the right state of mind to do what he did, it was his body, his actions. And no one would believed otherwise.

He stopped pacing and held his breathe suddenly

The Hive…

They'd… they'd hunt him down and tear him apart… he'd have to run away - to where? He had just killed his own Hive-mate for fucks sake! The only correct response would be to find him and put him down immediately. No, there was no escape from the Hive, no escape from the wrath of Mothers' Soldiers! He was practically a fugitive, and the entire Hive would be under every obligation to find him, fuck him up, and eat his bloodied corpse!

He hissed at the ground in helplessness.

It was _over_ for him.

He was pretty much _dead_ now.

Ryus was about lay down on his side and curl up into a ball and wait for the inevitable vengeful wrath of the Hive to come and send him to the Void.

Then, he had an epiphany.

THIS WAS _NO_ TIME TO PANIC!

What was he thinking!? He had just spent the last thirty seconds and almost all of his brainpower panicking! He was acting like a Worker youngling separated from their Queen! He was _not_ using his intelligence productively! And that. Wouldn't. Do. Not at all!

Not wanting to think about the utter bedlam a panicked Worker could stir up, he trotted over to the Soldiers' corpse, and sat on his haunches.

_Alright… have to think… have to sort this out_, he thought with conviction.

Looking half mindedly at the dead Soldier, he began to mentally think through this situation.

Okay. He killed a fellow Hive-mate. Probably the closest thing to a "crime" that his kind had. This would be seen as utterly unacceptable. And he would be hunted down by his former Hive and killed on the spot. It was an instinct built up to counter act any form of "insanity" or mental disorder that some of his species can catch. After all, a crazed Hive-mate with a lust for blood, running rampant through a Hive can be a serious problem.

He briefly wondered if _he was_ insane, but dismissed it, for it would only make him panic again.

He _then_ thought about what he could _do_ about it.

He couldn't return to the Hive, for Mother would easily be able to pick up on any thought that he had, search his memories, and instantly label him as a target… At least at _that_ range. He was currently on the outskirts of the human complex, thus was about a kilometer away from the Hives' center, and a kilometer away from Mother. At this distance and beyond, the only thing that Mother could do in terms of the Hive-mind was communicate with him. If he were to get within 100 yards of her, she'd be able to read his thoughts. His breed of Scouts had very powerful telepathy, comparable to a Queens. They'd _have_ to have an increased empathic capacity because of their increased need to communicate with the Queen. They weren't called "Scouts" for no reason, and thus would report to their Queen constantly to relay information. Because of his powerful telepathy, Ryus was one of the few that could communicate with the Queen at this distance. At least _alone_. A _group_ of his kind could make for a strong enough "signal" to just about communicate with the Queen at this kind of range. Like an array of satellite dishes that Ryus had once heard of. Okay, so he couldn't return to the Hive without a death wish… and Mother would most likely call for him to return. He couldn't very well run away, Mother would become suspicious, and probably send one of her Praetorians to find him. But if he couldn't run away to some other human city or something, and if he couldn't return to the Hive, then… he was stuck between a rock and hard place.

Ryus growled at the corpse as if it had just insulted him.

_So, I can't run away, and I can't go back to the Hive anymore, so where does that leave me?_, he asked himself.

As he looked upwards in realization, he was almost certain he would have gone pale.

He would have to leave the planet.

It was his only chance of survival now.

How exactly he would do so was beyond him, but… he slowly started nodding at the thought that it could work. All he'd have to do was keep away from the Hive and make excuses to Mother until he found a way to get the fuck off of Guardian-625!

The thought of deserting the Hive and literally leaving his world behind didn't really sadden him as much as he thought it would. The thought that he would have to leave Mother was… almost negligible. His brow would have furrowed in distaste at his own apathy about this situation. But… he knew where his carelessness regarding the Hive came from… but that's a story for another day.

[*smirk* I know how much you hate that].

Ryus stood up on all fours, confident that, while he didn't have a plan, he had an objective. He then hissed as he remembered about what he was to do with… _her_. He oriented his head in the direction of the human female, causing the _Ancestral_ to jump into action, reminding him to kill her. And causing the _Unknown_ to swell with happiness at the sight of the girl. That was just the problem… the fact that attempting to kill this girl had caused him to have a seizure and sprout a second influence in his head was… strange.

Wow… that sounded _really_ weird!

Ryus padded over to her now sleeping form and stared at her, mulling over what he should do.

His immediate gut reaction was to crack her skull open, born from the automatic kick of his instincts. But rationality dictated that he couldn't do that, for fear of him having a second spasmic "episode" in his attempt. Not to mention how the _Unknown_ had reacted to the, now dead, Soldier trying to kill her. Oh, yes. Ryus had no doubt that it was the _Unknown_ that had caused him to lose his control. Who else could it be? Well… in this case "what". So, his next thought was to just leave her there to die, seeing as though he couldn't do it with his own hands, and tell Mother that the human perished upon its fall. The _Unknown_ instantly protested this.

Not wanting the fuckin' thing to give him a frickin' heart attack, Ryus scrapped that idea. Well. It seemed "it" didn't like the notion of Ryus causing her death by inactivity, either.

Ryus shook his head, growling. This was getting more complicated by the second…

He didn't like the fact that this human had somehow caused him to be mentally affected like it had; the _Unknown's_ appearance was no doubt caused by Ryus's attempt to kill her. He also really didn't like the fact that the_ Unknown_ was somehow powerful enough to wrestle his control away from him. Both facts made him feel extremely uncomfortable and anxious. Scared of what's in your own mind… well, shit. But, another thought occurred to him. What was so special about this girl, for him to have a seizure, develop a second mental influence, and cause him to kill his Hive-mate? Ryus then shivered at the reasoning that this girl must have been… really fuckin' important for some reason.

But wait. According to the fact that the _Ancestral_ hadn't pushed him to _do_ anything upon the appearance of the _Unknown_ would indicate that… this was the first time anything like this had happened! After all, that was the reason that the _Ancestral Instincts_ were there. To guide any of his kind through any kind of unusual situation, by pushing the individual with an "urge" or something of the like.

Ryus felt his esophagus clench shut.

If he'd never seen this human before… then there must be _something_ about her that really demanded study in order to understand something… undoubtedly something important about _himself_. What exactly could be gleaned from this was beyond him. But, what Ryus did know so far, was that she was undoubtedly "linked" to him in some way. How else could it be explained if he was the first to have this happen to him?

His acidic blood ran cold as he realized that she-this human was _literally_ THE only good thing that he had going for him. With him, practically, no longer a part of the Hive, and his only agenda being to get the hell out of dodge… she was his only asset. Plus, if he could learn what exactly made her linked to him… the possible benefits were unknowable in both quality and quantity!

That epiphany made him snarl quietly. He _had_ to know _why_ she was so special. He had to know "why", dammit! Ryus was adamant in the assumption that this was important… possibly to both of them.

_So… what do I_ do_ with her then_, he wondered.

This made his situation even _more_ complicated.

In order to investigate this whole "Unknown-human girl" phenomenon, he would obviously have to keep her with him. He almost scoffed at the sensation of the _Unknown_ pulsing with elation at the idea. But how would that even _work_? She would obviously try to run away at the first opportunity from him. His species _was_ pretty much the "Black Plague on steroids" to humans. And how would he keep the Hive off of his back when he had a human girl... prey with him? Investigating why the girl was linked to him once they were both off planet shouldn't be a problem. It wasn't the first time he had to test or experiment. (Again, that's a story for another day).

He began pacing again, around the human in question's sleeping form. Which happened to snore slightly from time to time. Not nearly as erratically as he had been pacing before, but with calm, slow, quiet steps.

Ryus pondered how these problems could be avoided or solved. Well, the Hive_ was_ practically fighting a bloody war against the humans; the "Colonial Marines", as they called themselves. So Mother would most likely have her hands full, busy directing the Soldiers, Workers, Sentries, Rangers, and maybe, the Praetorians to keep the humans from destroying their species entirely. And would not check on him for a while, thus, he could find an area where the Hive's patrols seldom went, and hide the girl there until he could find a way off of GD-625.

As he thought this, an idea for a decent hiding spot popped into his head.

_The apartments..._, he thought, slowly. The human dwellings that he knew as "apartments" would be ideal. Since Mother had apparently gone there first while she was still a Worker, she had already captured Hosts from there long ago. Before the Hive had even started. She had once told him, upon being asked, that those human dwellings had already been seldom populated at the time, thus she had cleared them out. Ryus felt a small pang of pride for his Queen, at the thought of her capturing over 40 Hosts all by her lonesome, as a Worker, no less!

He shook his head, getting back on track.

When Ryus had heard that those apartments were strictly abandoned, he suggested taking all patrols away from that area. His reasoning being that the humans wouldn't be stupid enough to go there where the Hive could easily find them, and that they needed all the Soldiers they could get to keep up the fight against the humans military elsewhere. Not to waste on useless patrols.

It had taken Mother about half an hour to say "okay", no doubt due to her instincts dictating that they had to patrol EVERYWHERE, but Ryus knew that logic would always triumph.

The apartment section of the human colony was also slightly further away from the Hive. Ryus _should_ still be able to communicate with Mother from there. He didn't want her to become suspicious at his absence from the Hive-mind.

_Okay, hide the girl within the apartment complex until I find a way off planet_, he thought, adding that to the list of shit he had to get done.

As for the humans' inevitable distrust of him… he supposed he should hope to get lucky. Trust is easy to lose, yet hard to earn.

Alright… Ryus had a plan… okay, well, not exactly a "plan", more like "stuff that needs doing".

Ryus stopped pacing and padded over to sit near the girl's head., He thought for a moment, then rose onto his hind legs. He'd need to get her out from under that rubble.

A large metal plate of flooring lay on the humans chest, being further weighed down by the ends of a few steel girders, and some broken off slabs of concrete from the room's ceiling. He looked up and snarled at the sight of the blue-ish light from the hole getting dimmer.

Ryus knew that the light was coming from a window in the hallway above, so it must have been getting dark. While not a problem for him, it wouldn't make the girl any safer with the Hive's Soldiers being more active at night. His kind were naturally nocturnal, but could put off sleep for some time should they need to be awake during the day. Having more of his kinds' Soldiers around definitely wasn't going to give the human much of a chance-

He shook his head, stopping that train of thought. He had to stop thinking like that, self doubt would only make his situation worse. _Worse… yeah, being a fugitive to my entire species, on the run, and concealing a human can get worse?,_ he asked himself bitterly... apparently so.

He moved his right leg forward to brace himself, clutching the end of one of the girders with both hands. It momentarily hit him just how insane this whole thing had become… and just how likely HE was to be crazy. Okay, he had to get those things out of his head and focus! Ryus hissed quietly as a small strain ached through his arm muscles as he lifted a girder about a foot off of the nearly crushed human… and nearly dropped it as he heard as sudden _"Ryus?"_, in his head.

_Shite! Mum!_, he thought in momentary panic. He was panting from the sudden scare, so he took a moment to calm down and collect a his thoughts. _Just stay calm, she can't read your thoughts, just… just reply_, he told himself.

_"Yeah?"_, he replied, completely casually. He silently thanked the fact that he could manipulate his mental voice in order to contradict the nervousness he was feeling.

A wholesome, warming presence filled his mind after he had answered Mother, essentially "picking up the phone" in telepathic terms, considering he was about a kilometer away from her.

_"Ryus, I've just felt a Soldier disappear from my senses, somewhere near your position, can you tell me what happened?"_, Mother asked. Ryus would've mentally chuckled at the monotone, almost robotic, yet feminine voice she had, mostly because she almost barely used English.

* * *

><p>Despite that she found both the human language, and the unique naming of individuals to be pointless, considering their kind have no need for either of them, she still spoke to her child in the language he had taught her, and referred to him by the name he had given himself. She might as well use it for<em> something<em>. Plus, calling her favorite reconnaissance worker "Ryus" seemed to be somehow… more personal than simply referring to him as "Scout", or "child". The young Queen didn't know what exactly to call this feeling, it was apparently completely knew to both her and the _Ancestral_, but she didn't mind. As long as it didn't impair her abilities, she was fine with it.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Ryus felt himself freeze solid. She's talking about<em> that<em> guy! He briefly glanced at the corpse of why he had to leave Guardian. The body was slowly slipping into the small hole created by the pooling acidic blood. Creating "hiss" sounds, and wisps of corrosive smoke.

He nonetheless, answered immediately, _"oh, yes, a real shame that is, I had just killed that human female that you told me to find, when I noticed a human 'Smartgunner' nearby. I was about to decapitate the human from behind, but the Soldier that you felt the disappearance of engaged the human head on"_, he explained in a truly sorrow sounding voice.

_"Smartgunner?"_, she questioned, forgetting what he was referring to. Ryus relayed a mental image from the memory of the time that he had encountered a Smartgunner himself.

He felt distaste, contempt, and hate pulse from his Queen as she was reminded of what the word "Smartgunner" entailed. A heavy set human with bulky armor, a glass square in front of one of the human's eyes, while it wielded an extremely large heavy machinegun, known for tracking its targets. Not that she actually took the time to remember what exactly any of that meant, all she knew was that they were dangerous.

Ryus then felt a wave of honest to god grief flow from his Queen, to him. Despite what many humans might think, the Queens of his species always experienced sadness for the loss of any of their children. It is a mother to son/daughter relation, after all.

_"That is unfortunate, he was quiet young as I understand?"_, she asked with what sounded like a small pang of sadness in her tone, although, not much.

_"Yes, judging from the pattern of his head, he couldn't have been more than a month old"_, Ryus confirmed.

_"Month?"_, she asked. _"30-31 days"_, he replied, a bit irritated, even though it couldn't be helped.

She was about to say something else, when her presence partially left Ryus's mind.

_Hmm… probably one of the Rangers' falling asleep again_, Ryus thought, chuckling inwardly. It wasn't uncommon for the Rangers' of their Hive to be posted to guard one of the Hive entrances for days on end, sometimes a week or two. It usually resulted in one or two Rangers' " falling sleeping on the job", despite their best efforts not to. It might've been funny, if it weren't for the immediate and unemotional response of said Rangers' being told to eat and rest upon this happening. And the utterly ill-humored reaction that these Rangers' always display because of it.

Ryus shook his head slowly, he was probably the only one in the Hive who had a sense of humor… or even understood humor.

Ryus waited for his Queen, still holding the girder above the unconscious human that was stirring slightly.

Finally after a minute, Mother came back to Ryus, the same warm presence wholly filling his mind. _"Return to the Hive"_, she said.

Ryus's lips pulled back in a wince, _"actually, Mum, I think I may have found something of interest around here, I think I'll stick around for a bit"_, he said.

* * *

><p>The young Queen wasn't surprised, it was expected for Ryus to occasionally run off somewhere in his so called "studies". She found it slightly odd that Ryus had decided not to return, as he'd normally want to. But, then again, he <em>had<em> completed his task, _and_ answered her questions, so he could do as he wanted as far as she was concerned. Plus, it had _never_ proven any kind of hindrance with his occasional "excursions", as he'd called them.

* * *

><p><em>"Very well"<em>, Mother said, leaving the line of communication silent, the warming presence fleeing from Ryus's mind.

_Oh, thank god_, he thought to himself in relief, as he slumped a bit.

He waited a moment, gathering his thoughts, then tossed the girder he had been holding off to his right with a loud clang.

After removing the debris from the human girl, he gently draped her unconscious body over his back and shoulder. The _Ancestral_ insisting in the elimination of the girl, and the _Unknown_ seemingly ecstatic at Ryus's plan of taking her with him commencing.

He didn't take notice of either of them, as he climbed up the walls, and across the ceiling of the storage room, to crawl out of the hole made by the girls' drop. Careful not to drop the human he needed from his grip on her arm, and not to cause any further collapse of the floor.

He knew this complex like the back of his clawed hand, getting to the apartments wouldn't be a problem.

With the human lying on his back, he set off on the first leg of his, no doubt, INSANE agenda.

**Well... excrement has _officially_ struck the air conditioning unit... shit's hit the fan.**


	5. Chapter 4: And So It Begins

**Oh, I forgot to mention that "Ranger" is what Xenos would call Spitters if they spoke English.**

**Anyone ever get that thing where whenever you're bored, or you're listening to a song, you start imagining a movie trailer for the book you're writing? 'Cause I get that all the time.**

Chapter 4: And So It Begins…

When Samantha woke up, she didn't open her eyes right away. Partly because of her splitting headache, but mostly because she didn't feel… the same.

She didn't feel the cold pricking at her skin. Nor the soreness of her throat, making her want to cough. The wet blood that dripped down her scalp had dried. But what caught her attention was that she didn't feel the weight of the debris pressing down on her, the feeling of air being crushed out of your lungs.

She could take a breath and not feel like going into a hacking fit. And she felt as if she was lying on something… soft, almost like a… mattress.

_Wait…._

Samantha cracked open her eyes only to clamp them shut at her forehead throbbing. She reached up with both hands to rub the sleep out of her eyes, then to massage her forehead and the bridge of her nose to stop the aching.

_Hey, wait… I can move my arms!_, she realized.

She pulled her left leg up to get into a sitting position, but grunted when her leg suddenly felt as if it was lit aflame.

Well, good to see that's still there.

She pushed with her hands to sit up, opening her eyes to look down and see that her leg was black, blue, and swollen. She reached down to try touching it, and pulled back when it felt like her fingertips were actually lit cigars.

She frowned. _Damn. A muscle must be torn. I'm not going anywhere with this leg. Especially not with those bruises, either_.

That's when she noticed that she was definitely not where she remembered being.

She sat on a king sized bed with blue and beige covers, and wooden head, and foot panels. In a medium sized bedroom comprised of eggshell colored walls, white borders, and navy blue carpet. A chest-high mahogany wardrobe sat against the left wall. A small bedside table with a yellow parchment lamp on it was to her right. And to the right of that was a white door that faced the bed and, presumably, lead to the bathroom. An oil painting of a river in a forest during autumn, with a gold border, hung on the wall next to the door. Another door, presumably the exit, was right in front of the bed. The room was bathed in a golden light from a single, round light bulb on the ceiling.

This apartment was clearly meant to feel like a hotel room on Earth, and Samantha supposed that here would be as good a place as any to wake up without knowing how you got there.

The last thing she remembered was a… Xeno… a Warrior about to kill her, so she understandably pondered if she had died and this was heaven.

Hm, no, if this was heaven, then her left leg wouldn't be burning like hell.

_So… how did I get here?_, she wondered, her brow furrowing.

* * *

><p>It had taken Ryus half an hour to find the nearest apartment, and on the way he'd run past a pair of Rangers that were making their patrols. Luckily, they must have thought he was taking the human to the Hive Egg Chambers, because they paid him little mind. Upon entering the room he was in now he left the human girl in the only bedroom, coated all of the vents in Hive Resin to prevent any entry through those and had spent the past five minutes rooting around in the kitchen for food. She'd probably be hungry.<p>

As he was about to give up out of frustration, seeing as though the previous residents had taken everything with them, he heard an echo-y, feminine voice.

_So… how did I get here?_

He turned around to see through the kitchen and bedroom wall that the flashing of the human's diaphragm, lungs and heart had increased.

_Ah… she's awake… wonderful_, he thought, shifting on his feet.

He had been vaguely aware of a small ringing in his head for the past 45 seconds, but just now it had disappeared. His mind had synced up to her brainwave pattern.

It had only been through an absurd amount of trial, error, and practice, in an absurdly small amount of time that Ryus had been able to hear the thoughts of humans… and even more to be able to communicate with them.

Because he was the only one of his kind to even try, he was the only one to achieve this. Something that had benefitted him greatly.

Needless to say, it had and probably will create some very odd situations.

Well… in reality she was "broadcasting" about 20 different thoughts every second, it's just that Ryus could pick out the most prominent one(s).

He supposed that he should go and… check on her.

She would be seeing a lot more of him from now on.

Shaking his head, Ryus dropped to all fours and padded out of the kitchen, through the living room, and stopped in front of the bedroom door.

The _Unknown_ wanted to run inside to greet her, the _Ancestral_ demanded her be slain, both would be bad ideas. And Ryus? Strangely he felt the need to leave her alone. He was dreading how this would end up, really. He felt himself growl nervously at how she might react to him.

But he knew that if he were to make any progress at all in sorting this entire "human girl-Unknown" phenomenon, he'd have to start somewhere.

Even if it meant starting with a bad first impression.

He rose up onto his hind legs, closed a clawed hand around the copper handle, and opened the door…

* * *

><p>Samantha jumped when the door in front of her creaked and started to open. She had been thinking that she might have been saved by somebody… but…<p>

When the door opened to reveal a Xenomorph… for a moment that seemed like an eternity all she could do was stare blankly at it. Not believing her eyes. Her mind just… couldn't begin to make sense of this… not that it made any sense, anyway.

And then the voice of reason chose to intervene._ "FUCKING RUN YOU NUMBSKULL!"_.

In an instant she leapt off of the bed and to her right, yelping as she felt her left leg burn and collapse while doing so, resulting in her landing facedown on the carpet. She ignored the pain shooting up through her shin and scrambled frantically with her right leg and arms to the bathroom door with a speed that could only come from desperation.

_No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Hell fucking no! Not after surviving what I've been through! Not after everything that had to be done!_

Her thoughts turned into a hypothetical foot that slammed down on the accelerator for her body.

She reached up, yanked down the door handle, swung it open as best she could while being supported on only her right knee, and practically dove into the bathroom. Running completely on instinct and adrenaline, she scrambled to the closed glass shower in the far corner, ignoring how the cold tile floor scraped against her knee and elbows.

Samantha, in her all seeing wisdom, closed the glass panel behind her once she was inside the small, marble stall, gasping, and pushing back against the wall with her right leg.

She instantly realized she was now trapped.

That thing could now just waltz inside, cave in her skull with its inner jaws, and leave.

And she could do nothing about it.

Despite her hyperventilating, and panicked state of fight or flight… she felt her throat start to close up, her cheeks begin to burn, and her eyes watering, as, for the first time since this ordeal began, the urge to cry welled up from within.

And she had every right to.

She was going to die an undoubtedly painful death in less than a minute, and she had brought about her demise even faster by trapping herself in this shower cubicle because she wasn't thinking straight!

Not that she could have escaped anyway.

Before she could contain it, quiet, coughing sobs wracked her body, and echoed inside the bathroom, accompanied with tears, forcing her eyes to clamp shut from the saltiness.

_I'm such a fucking idiot! None of this would have happened if I hadn't forgotten to SEAL THE GOD DAMMNED FUCKING AIR LOCK! WHY!? Why do I have to die now when everything was going SO well!? Why did ANY of this have to happen!? Why did I have to become a murderer because if all this!? WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE ONE OF THE WORST FATES IMAGINABLE!? Why!?_

She curled in on herself up into the corner of the shower, sobbing, knowing that if she was going to breakdown and cry at some point, it may as well be now.

* * *

><p>Ryus… felt sick.<p>

He had expected the female to be afraid, maybe even angry, but… not to this extent!

Before he could do anything, the female shot straight off of the bed with surprising speed, and scrambled up to and through the door next to the bed. That told Ryus two things. 1: She was scared enough to completely disregard the injury in her left leg, and 2: she had the will to at least try to get away while other humans would have simply waited for their demise.

_No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Hell fucking no! Not after surviving what I've been through! Not after everything that had to be done!_

'Ha_d to be done'? What could she mean by that?_, he wondered. He had tried to discern any of her other, minor thoughts, but the adrenaline in her system was mucking up the "reception". He didn't know why she had gone into the bathroom, where he could have easily went in and had her trapped, but at least she was strong enough to move, and therefore, strong enough to heal from her injury.

The sound of her pulse was almost deafening (if Ryus had any ears), and he might have gone blind too (or eyes) from how brightly the electric energy in her heart was flashing. Boy, she was… really afraid, though, that's nothing new to him. Ryus, dropped to all fours and stalked around the corner of the bed and over to the doorway. He paused as he was almost forced to recoil from a myriad of scents slamming into him. An absurdly strong odor of stress, fear, anguish, and sadness made its way through the gaps in the straps of muscle that made up his "cheeks", and into his Piston Jaw to meet his smell receptors.

And what was even more stalling was the sound of… crying? He had heard it many times from the Hosts that had been about to die from the birthing of one of his Hive-mates. To hear it come from this female, the one who had kept it together the first time she'd seen him was… concerning.

_I'm such a fucking idiot! None of this would have happened if I hadn't forgotten to SEAL THE GOD DAMMNED FUCKING AIR LOCK! WHY!? Why do I have to die now when everything was going SO well!? Why did ANY of this have to happen!? Why did I have to become a murderer because if all this!? WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE ONE OF THE WORST FATES IMAGINABLE!? Why!?_ The voice was pained with emotional anguish, and one could tell that she'd scream it from the rooftops if she could.

_Murderer?_, Ryus was… surprised. Everything else in those thoughts would require future inquiry, but it was that "murderer" part that had caught him. Ryus oriented his head to the side, seeming to think for a second, then looked back up and slowly padded into the room. At one time he'd have been too shocked at the amount of emotional pain caused because of him to move, but now it only served to make the right side of his lips crack open in a grimace.

It also solidified how and why his life taken a drastic turn only 2 months ago.

(More on that later.)

The Unknown pulsed with sympathy and a desire to help, while the Ancestral only swelled with contempt, as Ryus moved over to the shower.

* * *

><p>When she heard the small scrapes of claws on tile, she didn't bother to stop crying. It wouldn't know what that meant anyway. When the sounds stopped in front of her she opened her eyes to see the Xeno standing on all fours on the other side of the glass door. The lower half of its body was hidden behind the wall she was curled up against and it was staring at her. She closed her eyes again, and pressed her forehead against the marble wall, still sobbing, waiting for the thing to smash its way through the glass and kill her.<p>

But nothing came. She had peeked at it from the corner of her eye multiple times to see that it hadn't moved. As if… waiting for something. It stood there for so long that eventually, the tears dried up, and some of her emotional turmoil was replaced by fear and morbid curiosity. She glared at the Xeno, which seemed to shift on its feet nervously, as she wiped the tears from her cheeks with her arm.

_What the hell are_ you _looking at?_, she thought, scowling.

_Just get it over with_, she looked down angrily.

The Xenomorph pivoted slowly, bringing all of it in full view. Her eyes darted up to look, then shifted downwards again. She thought nothing of it. It then sat down on its back legs, like a dog or cat, which forced her to stare at the odd behavior. She'd never seen any Xeno do that. And she doubted one of them would while a human's in their presence.

_What are you up to, Xeno?_, she thought, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

* * *

><p>Ryus had waited patiently for her to calm down as she slowly stopped crying. It had been a few minutes before her sobs turned into sniffs, and her scent turned slightly aggressive. What the hell are you looking at? Well, if she was going to be offended by him simply watching her, then this really wasn't going to go very smoothly.<p>

_You_, he pretended to reply, a bit cheekily in his head, shifting on his feet.

She then became angry for some unknown reason, as many of her kind did in these kinds of situations. _Just get it over with_.

_Mmm- nah, I think I'll keep you around_, he "replied" thinking, smarmily, as he moved to

What are you up to, Xeno? He heard her think when he had sat down in front of the glass door. Though he couldn't actually "see through" the glass, his echolocation still reached over and on the other side of it through the gap between its edge and the ceiling. Plus, electro-reception, so, yeah.

_'Xeno'? How do I_ still_ not know what that means?_, he asked himself. He had heard that word and 'Xenomorph' from the thoughts of many humans. But had never known what it really meant. It was obviously the name that the humans had given his species. And since he wasn't sure of whether or not it was derogatory term, or something, he hadn't bothered finding out.

He waited for another few minutes, as she stared at him paranoia waving off of her, and shifted on her spot.

He then decided to lift his tail, causing the female to jump and fix her gaze on it, and wedge the tip of his tail blade into the gap of the panel next to the bar handle. He pushed the glass all the way open with the flat of his tail blade and hesitantly pulled it back. Seeing that it would stay open on its own, he returned his tail back to its original position, and over so slowly stood up.

She shifted again, and the smell of fear coming from her intensified.

He didn't like that he was making her afraid, but he had to assess just where the "boundaries" would be with her.

* * *

><p>Samantha, despite knowing that the Xenomorph would kill her, still felt fear strangle around her throat, and shifted a bit where she sat on the marble floor. The shower cubicle itself was only 5-feet by 5-feet, so the Xenomorph could take 2 steps to be within range to tear out her throat. She had thought that there being no escape would make her at peace with her fate, but all it seemed to do was make her feel trapped and anxious.<p>

The Xeno seemed to be deliberately slow in its actions, almost as if it wanted her to die from suspense. It lifted its left hand, leaned forward, and placed it on the raised step that suspended the glass panels' frame. It tilted its head, and she made a small, nervous moan, her eyes widening. It lifted its other hand, and placed it about closer. She whimpered. The sound of her beating heart was so loud in her ears, that she didn't hear the Xeno whine.

As the Xenomorph brought about half of its body using one of its back legs into the cubicle, she began hyperventilating.

And when it was about to move its other hind leg… her fight or flight impulse must have kicked in before she could think because, at the same time its lips had pulled back, revealing its teeth and… well…

Her right leg had snapped upward and her boot had smashed into its muzzle.

* * *

><p>Ryus had just been taking a breathe by baring his teeth for a <em>split<em> fucking second, and he had heard very vague and primal thoughts of "kick" and "survive" come from the female, when the girls heavily clad rubber boot had connected with his teeth. His skull had instantly snapped backward, (making him immensely thankful that he was immune to "whiplash") as he screeched while his hind legs pushed forward, launching him out of the shower stall on impulse. Landing on his lower back.

The glass door had slammed shut from his tail knocking into it, making the female jump. He had to take a minute after sitting up, gripping his head with both hands, because the amount of survival instincts that fired off from the_ Ancestral_ en masse made his head spin, and it took all of his will power not to jam his claws into the human's throat. Which conflicted with the feelings of hurt and submission pulsing from the _Unknown_. Once it subsided, he shook his head with a growl. Okay… so that's where the boundaries were.

_Wow… that really fuckin' hurt_, he thought ruefully, as a clawed hand clapped against his bared teeth.

Alright, he'd have to avoid breathing in front of her, chances were, she mistook it for a sign of aggression… fantastic.

Although he could try just breathing with his mouth closed, and through the gaps in his "cheeks"… even if it was equivalent for a human to try breathing with a plug in one nostril, and the other stuffed with mucus.

He then realized something.

_Hey, wait… that_ actually_ fuckin' hurt!_, he thought in astonishment. As if to prove his point, he felt something wet drip onto the inside of his lower jaw. Though it was his Piston Jaw that he swallowed with, since it was an extension of his esophagus, he still had taste buds on the roof and "floor" of his mouth. And he tasted the acrid, burning of blood… well, his kinds blood. He kept his maw and lips shut while whatever was bleeding slowly stopped. Then he padded over to the corner of the room that was on the same side as the shower stall, and allowed the accumulated blood to spill onto the floor there. Creating a green/yellow/brown hole in the floor.

(He thought had heard one of the human's thoughts, but he dismissed it for the moment.)

Then he went back over in front of the shower door, and started picking in between each of his teeth. He stopped when his claw went through the space that one of his molars, just behind his upper right canine, used to be in.

A brief infrasonic chirp caused him to orient his head to the floor tile right behind him.

His tooth…

_That's… actually amazing_, he thought in disbelief. Very few humans, even the ones that were supposedly their best warriors, actually used their legs to attack and even less managed to cause an injury to one of his kind doing so! He threw his missing tooth over his shoulder and made another infrasound chirp, orienting his head at the human in the shower cubicle.

Her shirt had lifted up a bit, revealing part of her abdomen, and what his echolocation picked up made him release a second chirp, at a higher frequency for a sharper image, just to make sure he wasn't "seeing" things.

Muscles…

A "four pack" to be precise…

They certainly weren't as "pronounced" as the ones he'd seen on some of the male human Marines, yet… they were definitely there!

After seeing countless female Hosts within the Hive, who had all possessed the muscle mass of a bird hatchling, this was_ truly_ an oddity!

_Holy crap… she really_ is _a tough mother fucker!_, he thought, impressed. Confirming his earlier thought from when he had first found her.

* * *

><p>When the Xenomorph had disappeared off to the right, Samantha had her hand over her mouth in shock at what she had just done. She'd probably enraged it!<p>

_Oh, shit! It's probably really pissed off! Oh god, it's gonna tear me apart limb from limb!_, she thought, panting.

At least before it seemed like it was going to make her death quick, but now that she had injured it, that could very well change!

She had squeaked in dread when it found a missing tooth on the floor.

It brought the tooth up to its head, examining it, then… threw it over its shoulder and out of sight.

She stared in pure confusion when the creature only glanced at her, then padded out of sight itself. And… Out. The. Door…

_Uh… what?_

She blinked as her mind pondered over how… calm the Xeno had seemed.

* * *

><p>After leaving the bathroom, Ryus believing that that was as far as they'd get in terms of interaction today, he hopped onto the bed and glanced about the room.<p>

He had to leave in order to find some food for the girl, she would have to keep her energy up if she were to keep up with him in the Hive.

And perhaps a food offering would gain some trust from her…

But he couldn't leave without keeping her here somehow. She'd no doubt escape as soon as he turned his back, and as much as constraining against someone's free will disturbed him, he couldn't let that happen. He internally frowned as he considered his options. He couldn't just lock the doors, she'd just unlock them and leave. And she'd probably just kick down any Hive Resin he secreted, like how she'd "kicked down" his tooth.

He would have beamed as an idea dawned on him…

* * *

><p>Samantha frowned as she heard the sound of something heavy scraping across carpet come from the bedroom.<p>

And when she heard the sound of the Xenomorph's feet running, and felt it through the floor, slowly fade out of ear shot, her frown deepened.

_What the hell?_, she thought, her eyebrow raising.

After half an hour of waiting for a sound of any kind, and being greeted with silence, she finally decided to chance it and peek into the bedroom, ignoring the acrid stench of Xeno blood from the hole in the corner.

Nothing. Except for the door being closed.

Her face lit up with hope as she half ran to the door.

She yanked down the handle; didn't budge. She was confused but realized that the Xenomorph had somehow locked the door. With a cocky smirk thinking "clever, but not clever enough", she unlocked the door and tried the handle again. It worked.

She then pushed the door open… and frowned when_ it_ didn't budge either.

She shoved against it with her shoulder, but it wouldn't move.

She went pale and realized that there was only a rectangular "footprint" in the carpet where the mahogany wardrobe used to be…

Damn…

_… the fuckin' thing barricaded the door!_

**For those of you who will undoubtedly get in an incoherent hissy fit about Runners supposedly being able to read a human's thoughts, and communicate with them. Allow me to direct your attention to the extended version of Alien 3.**

**In the extended version of the film, the Runner Alien (which had spawned from an oxen) had been trapped inside radiation proof vault with no escape.**

**To make sure that the film didn't end up being an hour and a half long, one of the characters, Gollic (I think was his name), who had supposedly revered the Runner, calling it a "dragon", suddenly got it into his head to kill the guy watching over him, and free the Alien.**

**Fans of the film (including me) came to the conclusion that the Runner had the ability to influence Gollic's (and other human's) thoughts and perception. I took it one step further by theorizing that the Runners power comes from its increased telepathic "skill" which it gets from its increased necessity to communicate with the Queen.**

**Granted, Gollic was a complete nutter, but wouldn't that have made his mind easily more vulnerable to the Runners empathic ability?**


	6. Chapter 5: Transitions

**Anyone ever get that thing, where when you're working on a chapter of your book, but you can't stay focused because all you can think about is a future, better chapter?**

Chapter 5: Transitions

After Ryus had locked and blockaded the bedroom door, then locked the front door, he had went trotting down the hallways of the apartment section of the complex. The _Ancestral_ pushed even harder to not leave the girl alive, and the _Unknown_ seemed to long for her presence. He hadn't had much hope in finding food there, since humans that had been leaving had taken most of it, or it was eaten by his Hive-mates, so his best bet now would be to root around in a grocery store or super market or something. Hopefully his "brethren" had not gone to one of those to eat for the sake of eating.

He wasn't worried about his "charge" [see what I did there?... again] being found by a member of the Hive. Mother had deliberately ordered the abandoned "human dwellings" be strictly avoided for the sake of efficiency. A decision that _Ryus_ had come up with and suggested, but still.

Ryus took a left at an intersection in the plasticrete/carpet hallways. He had once heard from a human Marine's thoughts that these hallways "looked a lot like hotels on Earth". Ryus didn't know what "hotel" or "Earth" meant, but he assumed they were pleasant things, judging by the Marine's scent of fondness… right before Ryus had cut the guy's head off.

If Ryus weren't occupied with trotting and trying to find food for the human female, he might have shivered.

_Will those memories_ ever _go away?_, he had asked himself many times.

They only seemed to become more vivid with each kill.

At times he'd ask himself why he endured deliberately remembering every time he took a life, and thus tortured himself.

If he gave in to the adrenaline rush and instincts that he would become flushed with in each of those moments, then they would have faded away into the fog of his mind as mere glimmers and small flashbacks.

He could forget them.

Like all of his Hive-mates do…

But then he'd remember…_ that_… he'd remember that one Host from 2 and a half months ago…

And now he'd remember the thoughts of the human female from less than 10 minutes ago too…

They're the reasons he forced himself to endure… to remember…

Ryus shook his head a bit, a small whine squeezing out of his closed jaws. None of that was important anymore, it had occurred to him that when he left Guardian-625 he wouldn't have to kill anymore, that he could finally do something_ else_ once he left the Hive behind. And perhaps he could do them with that human female, after he figured out what exactly about her had affected him so profoundly earlier. I.E: A seizure and a second mental influence; the _Unknown_. He didn't know, maybe they could end up as friends.

Ryus hopped over an acid "stain" that had just about dissolved the whole floor of about 5 feet of hallway. He didn't know what kind of human _civilian_ weapon could have caused an injury to one of his kind grievous enough to do that, but he didn't actually care. He took a right at a t-shaped junction, remembering where to go.

At the end of that hallway was the door to the outside; it was locked so Ryus had to stand up on his hind legs and kick it down. When a small courtyard was revealed to him, he bared his teeth, taking a breath; smelling the late night air. With a grunt of disinterest he dropped down to all fours and began trotting across the 30 foot wide, grass and cobblestone laden courtyard. Then he felt his skull buzz-

_"Ryus?"_, Mother called, her voice sounding slightly faint.

Ryus almost instantly tripped over his own feet in surprise, shrieking, ending up stumbling into an empty metal trashcan. Both he and it lying in a heap.

Ryus growled as he picked himself up, angrily swatting at the garbage receptacle with his tail, sending it sailing across the courtyard to land on the roof of a box shaped, metal building. _Why do I get the feeling that that's going to be a regular thing?_, he thought ruefully, sitting on his haunches, not looking forward to future communiqué with his mother.

_"Yes, mum?"_, he replied, as if he _hadn't_ just fallen on his arse because of her. The connection became stronger when he answered.

_"You are not where you were last, are you ready to return to the Hive?"_, she asked.

_"Hm? Oh,_ that? _Yeah, no, that was a fluke, it couldn't have been beneficial to the Hive in any way. I've moved on to something to that_ can", he responded flippantly.

_"Strange. You don't usually pursue things that don't look useful for certain…"_, she commented with a small hint of musing in her monotone mental voice.

_"Well, the choices of what to look in to_ are_ narrowing, and the options don't look very enticing"_, he said, faking his rueful tone.

_"Mm"_, she responded in affirmative. _"Are you certain you don't want to return to the Hive?"_, she asked. Ryus didn't know _why_ she was asking. If she wanted to she could just _order_ him to do so. Or… had he underestimated the level of self-awareness in his Hive-mates and Queen?

_"Trust me mum, this looks important"_, he said, only half lying.

No. He was certain that she was simply asking why she should let him be away from the Hive, and why he felt he should look into whatever it was he was investigating.

_"Very well"_, she consented.

Ryus passively stood up and continued trotting down the path he was taking.

* * *

><p>The Queen's impressive set of jaws shifted under her exoskeletal crown. Ryus was truly behaving strangely. He had never intentionally been away from the Hive this long. But she supposed that if it was as urgent as he thought, then he <em>must<em> have been attempting to investigate it to the best of his ability.

* * *

><p>Samantha sat down on the bed, panting, running her hands through her hair, and thoroughly peeved at how the Xenomorph had trapped her in the bedroom. She'd spent the last ten minutes trying to knock the door down while spitting out a variety of curses. She'd even thrown the lamp at it out of frustration.<p>

She had been driven by the desire to not be here when the monster came back to get her. And it would come back. She was so adamant in her conviction to be long gone before that thing could have a chance to kill her. It missed its chance to do so twice now, and a third time would be both unacceptable and unpleasant. But now? She just didn't have the energy to try getting away.

She… guessed that there would be no escape now… the Xenos would finally make her bite the dust and she had no way of avoiding it this time.

Samantha shifted uncomfortably on the bed.

Not knowing what to do, she simply sat and waited for death to come.

…

Well, obviously she got bored of doing that, so she swung her legs onto the mattress, hissing at how her left leg burned even more than it would when she'd first woken up in the here. This whole time she'd been hobbling around on her right leg, trying not to put any weight on her left while she was ranting and raving and muckin' about with the door. Needless to say, she'd fallen down a few times. As the burning in her leg died down, she allowed her thoughts to drift.

Unsurprisingly they revolved around her captor.

Instead of dreading how it'll kill her, and how slowly, she reflected on the beasts behavior, oddly enough. The Xenomorph, instead of taking her to the Hive, had dragged her to some random apartment. Which was weird. It also seemed to have no intention of killing her about twelve minutes ago, if the fact that it hadn't hissed or growled at her _once_ meant anything, even though it easily_ could_ have killed her, and despite that she had kicked it in the face. She also recalled how it seemed to have a seizure a little while ago when it attempted to end her life_ then_. Did it like her for some reason? Was it hoarding her from the rest of the Hive? Or was it simply "saving her for later"? Perhaps "storing" her for future use as a Host or as food? Or could it just be dumb? A mental defect maybe? Rejected from the Hive out of a need for intelligent and efficient members? She couldn't make sense of any of this shit.

She stopped when her thoughts started giving her a headache.

She simply decided to NOT trust it. At all. Distrust was safe. Distrust would make sure taking risks didn't kill her. After all… it's a Xenomorph. The deadliest thing in the universe.

* * *

><p>Ryus padded down another empty aisle. His claws clicking against the smooth ceramic floor. Regrettably, he had been wrong in his hope that food would still be in one of the human shops. He had been searching through different stores, bistros, restaurants, and bars in the humans commercial district for 2 fucking hours! He was looking around in his fifth convenient store when he began to get ticked.<p>

_Hmphf… "convenient store" my arse… more like "abandoned, rundown, shitty, empty, depressing, fuckoff waste of time"_, he ranted in his head.

Ryus was growling softly, his head hanging low in his peeved state, as he weaved around the end of the aisle on his left and walked down the next, and last, one. This place, like the rest of them, was locked up, out of power, and empty.

He was starting to become anxious to get back to his human. He'd been gone longer than expected. Could she have gotten the door down, somehow? He didn't think so. Could she have been found? Not probable. But that didn't stop him from worrying. The _Unknown_ longed to be with her again, an urge that Ryus wouldn't mind placating at the moment, and the _Ancestral_ had been deathly silent.

Ryus had noticed how it had acted like that the moment he had killed his Hive-mate, the young Soldier. It was almost as if… being a traitor without a Hive made it feel as lost as Ryus was beginning to feel. Being forced to make up your plans as you go along because of complications. Not having a schedule or regime to follow. Not being able to commune with the Queen for instructions.

Hmphf… listen to him, starting to sound almost like a Worker.

His head rose as he smelled something… calcium… wheat… fruit. He moved faster.

There, at the end of the aisle on the right, bottom shelf, a round plastic package that smelled fake and processed. Cringe worthily horrible. Repugnant.

_Just_ the kind of thing humans like.

He bounded the rest of the short distance, stopping in front of it. He leaned back into a crouch, snatched it up in his claws, and carried it in his mouth as he made his way out of the store, onto a blue/gray metal balcony that wrapped around the building once before disappearing into the seemingly endless roof that encompassed almost the entire commercial district.

* * *

><p>Samantha didn't jump when she heard the sound of scraping outside the door, like she'd normally do when a noise startles her. Her brain had practically gone deceased out of boredom for two hours straight. She didn't bother moving from her supine position on the bed to look up when the door opened. If it killed her, it killed her. At this point death would be a blessing.<p>

She felt a weight press down on the foot of the bed, making it shake, and felt something light be placed on her stomach. She looked down from the ceiling to see a package of dried fruit, eggs, and cheese. She felt the weight on the bed lift, and looked to see the Xenomorph from before walk toward the door. Without fear (at least not very much of it) clouding her reasoning, she could actually observe and study the creature.

It was unlike_ any_ Xeno she'd seen. It wasn't jet black, or dark blue, or gray. It had a bronze/amber color to its entire body. It's dome seemed to gleam at the right angle, the rest of it had a dulled, watered out quality to it.

While on all fours it had to be as tall at the shoulder, slightly longer than, and thrice as deadly as a Siberian tiger. Drawing attention to the fact that its arms were just as long as its legs, like a quadruped. Its tail seemed ever so slightly longer than the rest of its body,_ almost_ disproportionate. While standing on its hind legs it was about 7 feet tall, same as a Drone.

Another thing she noticed was its skin.

Instead of being completely arthropodal/chitinous in nature, it seemed to be a mix of both that and leathery/epidermis skin. While definitely not as bulky as she'd seen on a lot of Warriors, its armor seemed designed for agility, and acrobatics. The final thing she took note of was that… there almost seemed to be visible muscles in its upper arms and thighs. While its forearms, shins, and feet were like all other Xenos, skeletal looking, light-weight, yet strong. It's upper arms and thighs looked more… organic, instead of bio-mechanical.

The last thing she noticed was the weapon on the end of its tail. A Warriors tail blade is long-2 feet long, curved and made to stab, shank and impale. A Drone's is short- 1 foot, thick, curved, with paddle-like spines near the base of the blade, yet built for the same purpose. Whereas this one's… was odd. It was 2 and a half feet in length, completely straight, like a stiletto knife. Serrated edges, and smooth on both flat sides of it, like an arrowhead. If she had to guess, it would be most effectively used for quick, repeated stabs. Or as some sort of built in "saw blade" or something.

She noticed with some embarrassment that it completely lacked dorsal tubes, or… any spinal appendage for that matter. That meant it most likely strictly breathed and smelled through its mouth. Meaning that, earlier, she had kicked it because it was_ breathing_. She had kicked it… in the face... because it was Taking. A. Breath… wonderful.

Samantha looked down at the food it had apparently brought her and frowned as she looked back up at it. It was shuffling in a tight circle in the doorway, then lied down, wrapping its tail around its body, like a dog would do. Head tucked under its legs.

It caused her to look around for a clock. She found one on the bedside table, a digital clock with glowing blue numbers: 11:41 P.M.

Its different appearance, offering of food, and odd behavior didn't help its case in her mind. For all she knew it could be trying to trick her into earning her trust, it could be a rogue from the Hive, or it could have poisoned the food-or something! Xenomorphs can be _very_ devious!

She wouldn't make the mistake of trusting that thing, not for _one_ second, about _anything!_ She tossed the package at the bathroom door, it bouncing off of the door to roll under the bed. The Xenomorph momentarily looked up, glancing at the rejected offering, then laying its head down again. She sat up, against the wooden head panel, crossing her arms, watching it. She wasn't afraid of it anymore, but she wouldn't feel safe when it's around. Let alone sleep with it in the same room.

She would come to realize that, yes, it was sleeping there to make sure that she wouldn't escape… well, "it" was also doing so to protect her.

* * *

><p>Had Ryus been human, he would have given the girl a "really?" face, then shook his head chidingly at her. He had heard all of her thoughts, and while he admired her gumption and resolve… she was going to be <em>very <em>tired tomorrow!

Although, he would take the advice about using "repeated stabs" regarding his tail… she was actually quite clever, another oddity among the females of her species. Well, either that or the rest of them just didn't know how to use their intelligence.

**If this chapter feels rushed, it's because it isn't a very crucial one. Rater chapters (yes that's intentionally misspelt) will be longer and more detailed, but dis one (that too) was (as the title suggests with its double meaning) a transitional piece.**

**You know… these chapters would be going a lot faster if you weren't constantly pausing to look up what all of those fancy words mean…**


	7. Chapter 6: Escape

**Sorry about the long wait, life's been a bitch. I hope not too many of my loyal followers-I mean, fans didn't get bored and sod off.**

Chapter 6: Escape

_The next morning…_

Ryus was completely and utterly motionless, as he slept. His lips were pulled back the whole night in a convoluted grin to allow him to breath as he slumbered. A human would have probably found the rough carpet to be uncomfortable, but having an exoskeleton, as Ryus does, prevents the fibers from being a problem. Sleep had been rather light and barely restful. Not that he actually needed it, mind you, but he slept anyway. After all, even a light sleep can provide the energy needed in case of danger. Or in case the human female decided to try and run, which is why Ryus had placed himself in the doorway for his rest. To both protect her and keep her detained.

Ryus woke up. His body shifted ever so slightly, curling inward a bit. He took a deep, long breath, his torso rising, and his lips closed to hide his teeth for the first time in 8 hours.

_Another dreamless sleep_, he thought, lifting his head. He slowly, and soundlessly, got to his feet in the doorway, lazily stretched his stiff muscles, and sat down, facing the bed. Ryus had never had a "dream" in his life. The only reason he even found out that humans had them regularly was that he could hear and feel faint thoughts and emotions being emitted from the minds of unconscious Hosts.

Though he couldn't understand how or why human's minds were semi-active during rest, he knew that it was, apparently, like a very faint memory. He didn't know what one of _his_ dreams could possibly be like, and he wasn't _entirely_ sure he _wanted_ to know. There was an equally good chance he could have a nightmare, and judging from the fidgeting and whining of the sleeping human's who had them, it didn't seem like something he'd want to experience.

_Speaking of humans…_, he thought, orienting his head in the direction of his charge. At some point in her sleep she had laid down on her side and gotten under the blanket.

Upon seeing the sleeping woman he was met with a convenient surprise. Instead of howling for her blood, the _Ancestral_ was… well, it was _still_ demanding she be killed, but… it seemed less eager. As if it was getting tired or desensitized to seeing her there and was… he didn't know, getting used to her being around?

Ryus tilted his head as he pondered the reason why. Could it mean that the _Ancestral_ simply believes that all humans are a threat? And that being around this human for this amount of time could be proving it wrong somehow? Was it warming up to the female in some way? Or was it just slightly placated that Ryus had the human within reach and under control, therefore making her a Host, and thus harmless?

The human moaned quietly in her sleep as she fidgeted a bit, drawing his attention.

Ryus studied her for a moment. He had a good idea of how unconscious humans should sound like. And he was curious to see how her body had been coping with the past 24 hours. You could tell a lot about a living thing's mental state by how they sleep. Her heart was beating slightly faster than it should (probably from all of the adrenaline in her system from yesterday), and it flashed a brilliant blue in tempo with every pulse of the powerful muscle. Ryus had found that, for the first hour of a humans' 8 hour rest, the glow of their hearts would slowly brighten, as if "charging an empty battery". Her diaphragm and lungs were at a normal, sleeping pace, and caused her torso to steadily rise up and down with each slow breath. He could also see what looked to be a translucent outline of the bones in her ribcage, caused by the neural electricity in her lungs and diaphragm. Sometimes it was almost as if humans looked like skeletons to him, if they were doing something to send energy through their all of their muscles and bones, like running. She wasn't dreaming, or having a nightmare, though the latter would have been more obvious to him. Whenever a human dreams, Ryus could always see faint little electric pulses where their brains were housed.

[Man… I'm starting to make humans look like bloody Christmas trees, aren't I?]

She was definitely asleep, a light sleep, mind you, but asleep.

Ryus was glad that, somewhere in her head, she felt safe around him. Otherwise her body and sub-conscious wouldn't have _allowed_ her to sleep in the first place. The more logical and dominant part of her mind would most likely disagree to that assumption, but still.

Ryus had been concerned that she would be overtired, seeing as though she had rejected the food offered to her, and seemed adamant to stay awake with him in the room. But, after an hour or so, she finally succumbed to her fatigue. Ryus had thought she would have stayed awake longer, considering that she had been unconscious for about an hour and a half, yesterday, out of injury and exhaustion, but apparently her body didn't think it had had enough rest. Meaning that his worries were unwarranted.

_But… she'll still be hungry_, he thought, his lower lip curling in a grimace. Fatigue may not have been a cause for concern, for the moment. But hunger would sap her strength. And judging by the way her stomach area would constantly make shriveled, unhealthy looking pulses of cobalt, she could definitely use some sustenance. Ryus had no idea how long she might have gone without food, at this point, but he knew that she would need it, soon. This was not a good state for her to be in, in case one of his Hive-mates got to her, and she couldn't run.

Ryus growled quietly and shook his head at the floor._ Can't have her die when I still don't know what makes her so different… and I can't have the Unknown going berserk, again_, he thought, in distaste. In a small fit of anxiety, Ryus 's head swiveled on its' joint, and his lips opened to taste the air, searching for any signs of living things nearby. Sensing nothing, he returned to vacantly "gazing" at the human female in question.

Because of her paranoia about poison, he would have to go out and find more food for her. Not that he blamed her for that. Her suspicion was understandable, if a bit illogical. If the smell of undiluted, primal, terror that poured from the bodies of the humans he killed were anything to go by, then the topic of his species was definitely a fear provoking thought to humans._ I don't think I'll ever forget that stench_, he thought, shuddering slightly. He was certain that if he had a human nose, he would have lost his sense of smell long ago. That acrid, gag worthy, scent of fear would probably cause sinus damage.

Ryus remembered smelling his charges' fear yesterday, and hearing the terror induced thoughts from her mind. His tail impulsively coiled and uncoiled around his legs, banging lightly against the doorway where he sat, in contemplation. He realized something that made him feel like a complete dunce for not doing. Something that seemed so obvious now.

_Why didn't I try talking to her, yesterday?_, he asked himself, in confusion at his actions, or… lack of actions. He bared his teeth to exhale and inhale, then held his breath, once more. It was actually quite a "dumbass" thing to do, on his part. Once he began hearing her thoughts, when his mind synced up to her brainwave pattern, he could have gone right ahead and talked to her. Quite easily, in fact. In the telepathic terms of his kinds' "language", it would have been as simple as plugging a microphone into a machine, and talking… well, thinking, actually. Yet, for some stupid reason, the thought to go ahead and _do so_ never _bloody_ occurred to him! Which is a pretty dumb thing to do, considering that communication would have saved _both_ of them some grief, yesterday.

Ryus threw the topic out of his mind, and oriented his head at the woman's' sleeping form, getting back to the task at hand. Nourishment. He tilted his head at her, thinking. He could… he could wake her up and just _tell_ her to stay here. He would be gone for a while, considering how long it had taken him to find the food for her, yesterday. And she might wake up while he was gone.

But then he would have to deal with her immediate disbelief and shock. She would start yammering about how amazing the fact that he could talk was, and asking how he had been able to do so. A situation that Ryus was not in the mood, nor position for. That would take ages to get through, and to be honest, Ryus kind of despised how that would always go down. It was extremely annoying. And plus, she could attract the attention of one of Ryus's Hive-mates with her yelling. And she _would_ yell incredulously.

Ryus stiffened, and hissed quietly in alarm at the notion of how _literally_ getting into her head might affect him. Trying to kill her had ended up giving him an extremely painful seizure and made the Unknown show up (the presence of which was beginning to give him a headache). And when he was going to allow her to be killed by that Soldier, the Unknown wrenched control away from him and essentially condemned Ryus to a life on the run.

_Wow… I never thought I'd ever end up in the position to be thinking that_, he half mindedly realized.

Who bloody _knew_ what could happen if something went awry in telepathic communication. For all _Ryus_ knew, their heads could explode, or something! Or they could _both_ end up having seizures, this time! Or she could escape while he was writhing on the ground in agony. One or both of them could possible go _crazy!_

Okay… finding out how any of this was possible, and how it was caused because of this human girl, would be _way_ more complicated than he thought. It would be like trying to guess your way through a minefield. At least for now, until they were both safely off of Guardian, and in a place where of little risk, he would have to go without talking to her. This situation was just too _new _to take chances. Especially when this kind of situation had _literally_ never happened before.

No. No, none of those possible outcomes to attempting communication _here_ would do. Not at all. For the moment he would just have to find more food for her and try to be quick. He couldn't just offer her the same rejected offering that was under the very bed she was sleeping on. She would just reject it again. Besides, perhaps a second offering would somehow garner him some trust from her… or at _least_ make her mouth water enough for her to not be able to resist her hunger anymore.

With his current goal at the fore front of his mind, Ryus got up onto all fours, turned around, and padded away from the bedroom doorway, toward the apartment entrance. His tail gently dragged the bedroom door shut, so as to not disturb her. He rose onto his hind legs as he neared the main entrance to the apartment, and reached out a clawed hand to grip the door handle. He pulled it down, and pushed the door open with a small shove.

Leaping out to land in the hallway with a small hiss, he dragged the door shut by its handle using his tail, again. Ryus tasted the air, and slowly, methodically pivoted on the spot, spinning 360 degrees, his skull facing downwards. It was to allow him to pick up any and all neural electricity from any living things nearby. Just to make sure. He was the only one in the Hive that actually knew how to "direct" his electroreception the way he could. And was thus the only one to benefit from it.

He detected nothing except for the sleeping female. Of whom the _Ancestral_ was almost _yelling_ at him to kill, and the _Unknown_ pulsed with sadness at having to leave.

Ryus ignored both of them, growling, and turned to the left to quickly trot down the hallway. His tail slightly stiffening, to counter balance the elevated pace.

As he remembered the mental map of the Hive's territory that he knew very well, he realized something _else_ important that hadn't come to mind, beforehand. Despite his knowledge of the area… he didn't actually know where he could find a way to leave Guardian-625…

As it happens, Ryus had no idea where to begin when it came to off-world transportation. Despite his fairly decent grasp of human society, as well as many of the things they invented, he honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a power generator and a spacecraft, if he ever ran into either of those. So, despite his knowing the Hive territory like the back of his clawed hand, he didn't really have much experience in the way of massive machinery or vehicles. So trying to explore the areas outside the Hives' dominion would be a pointless endeavor, and not just because he didn't have the knowledge for that to be helpful. But also because the human Colonial Marines had created a ring of death around the territory's' edges. Smartgunners, Sentry Turrets, SADAR Troopers (it's an AVP: Extinction thing), humans called Snipers who could kill from a mind bogglingly long distance, and even large vehicles built for warfare! Such as APC's and Dropships, both capable of causing destruction on a shocking scale.

So… yet again he was trapped between a rock and a hard place… and this time there would be no easy solution.

Before his thoughts could go much further, something stopped him in his tracks as he was about to get to an intersection in the hallways. He heard something.

He froze, his body tensing, claws digging into the carpet as he snarled in alarm. He swore he had heard… a creak. About 20 yards behind him.

_Don't tell me…_, he thought, hissing, as the back of his skull picked up the telltale flashing of a human heart. Already knowing what he'd find, he slowly turned around… to face the human girl that stood outside the apartment door. Frozen. Staring at him in turn. Like a deer caught in the headlights.

_Oh fuck_, he heard a feminine voice whisper. The human's thoughts.

Ryus's muscles tensed up, as his tail stiffened. His legs splayed out a bit, preparing to move quickly. A burn in the back of his head and neck sent flames into his spine as his heart started pumping faster, and adrenaline threatened to send his control out of a window. The _Ancestral_ was setting off all kinds of internal alarms, as if it had completely forgotten that this human had never been a threat.

_You're going to run, aren't you?_, he thought, dryly. His lips tugging into an odd grimace. He could feel the _Unknown_ shrivel in anxiety and concern for the female, within his mind.

She whipped around and bolted in the opposite direction.

Ryus hissed as he bounded after her…

He realized something… he could have just used the wardrobe to barricade her in the bedroom… god fuckin' damn it.

**Like I said, life's been a bitch. I'd apologize about the long wait, but I already specified in my profile that these things would take a while. Anyway, if you ever get bored of waiting for an update to this, I've got another AVP thing going called "The Xenomorph Archive". It should take a lot less time to update that so, yeah.**


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